M^ 



Jk^--^- ^^ 



?JS-' 




IN THE 

OLD S NEW WO! 




BY PAUL B. POPENOE 



DATE GROWING 




FIFTY-TIIUEE POUNDS OF DATES 
From a photograph taken by Jean Gciser at Colonib-Bcchar, Department of Gran. Algeria. 



DATE GROWING 



IN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW 



BY 



PAUL B. POPENOE 



with a chapter on the food value of the date 
By Charles L. Bennett, M. D. 




ALT ADEN A, CAL. 

WEST INDIA GARDENS 

191S 



5^364 



Copyright 1913 
By Paul B. Popenoe 



Press of 

GEORGE RICE & SONS 

Los Angeles 



©CI.AH61 061 



CONTENTS 



PART I 

Preface 13 

I. TheDatePalm 21 

II. The Date Palm Country 27 

III. Commercial Date Growing 43 

IV. Propagation by Offshoots 59 

V. Propagation by Seed 77 

VI. Cultuke of the Palm 89 

VII. Pollination 101 

Vin. Male Palms 119 

IX. ILvNDLING THE CrOP 1 27 

X. Artificial Ripening 135 

XI. Diseases AND Pests 149 

XII. The Classification of Dates 1 61 

XIII. Profits of Date Growing 173 

XIV. Arab Uses of the Date 187 

XV. Food Value of the Date 203 

PART II 

Varieties (Alphabetically Arranged) 211 

APPENDIX 

Quarantine Regulations 301 

To Grow Bananas from Date Seeds 303 

"The Sweat" Talisman 305 

Index 307 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FiFTT-THHEE PouNDS OF Dates Frontispiece '^ 

Egyptian Dates in Arizona 33 (^ 

After a HARb Freeze 37 t^ 

Setting Out Offshoots 41 1/ 

Seedlings in California 45 i/ 

Painting Offshoot Bases 49 V 

Baghdad Date Grower 57 

Wrapping Offshoots for Shipment 65 

Trimming Offshoot Bases 73 

Loading Offshoots on Tigris River 81 *^ 

Nursery of 13,000 Offshoots 89 ''^ 

Protection for Offshoots 97 i^ 

Offshoots Ready for Shipment 105 l/^ 

Buying Offshoots in the Sahara 113 ^ 

Nomads Encamped by a Clump of Palms 1 21 V' 

Eight- Year-Old Deglet Nur 1 29 I "^ 

Flowers of the Palm 137 • 

Protection from Insects 1 45 ^ 

Disinfecting Offshoots 153 

To Insure a Good Crop 1 61 

Ravages of Palm Borer 1 69 ' 

Curing Dates on Housetop 1 77 » ' 



PREFACE 

Although dates have been the object of culture 
for several thousand years, it is still too early to 
write a complete account of the industry. At no 
time in history has their cultivation been undergoing 
more change than at present. A year gives us an 
entirely new aspect of a problem; a month, even, 
may cause us to revise our views respecting some 
part of it. 

Accordingly, I am aware that this book can not 
be considered final. It aims only to present a practi- 
cal exposition of the methods of growing the date, 
as they are understood in the Old World and in 
the United States today; in six months more some 
phase of the work might need to be presented 
in an entirely different way. 

Nevertheless, it is hoped that the volume may be 
of service to the men who are actually engaged in 
building up an industry that is certain to be one 
of the largest fruit enterprises in California and 
Arizona. There is nothing else in print that covers 
the ground. The material for the present volume 
has been gathered during two years of travel in the 
most famous date-growing regions of the Orient, on 
behalf of the West India Gardens of Altadena, Cali- 
fornia. In addition to my own study of cultural 
methods in the United States, I have had the advan- 
tage of assistance from all the men best qualified to 
help me, and I am glad to have this opportunity 
of publicly thanking them. References throughout 
the book indicate the extent of my indebtedness. It 



xiv PREFACE 

is a particular pleasure to acknowledge my obligations 
to Walter T. Swingle of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
who has had general charge of experimental date 
work in the United States; to Thomas H. Kearney, 
whose study of Tunisian dates is the best work of 
the kind that we have; to David Fairchild of the 
same Bureau, to whom is due credit for the intro- 
duction of several hundred old world varieties of 
dates into the United States; to Silas C. Mason and 
Bruce Drummond, both engaged in date research 
work for the Bureau; to Dr. A. E. Vinson and other 
members of the staff of the University of Arizona; 
to Dr. L. Trabut, botanist to the government of 
Algeria; and to my brother, F. W. Popenoe, now 
of the Bureau of Plant Industry, who accompanied 
me during much of my travel and gave me invalu- 
able help in many ways. 

I have found American consuls in all parts of the 
world anxious to be of assistance, but none has 
exerted himself • so much on my behalf as Homer 
Brett, United States consul at Masqat, Oman. Being 
informed of the date of my coming, he secured from 
the Sultan of Oman a dozen of his own camels, had 
the caravan ready for immediate start upon my 
arrival, and shared with me the hardship, danger, 
and interest of the one hundred and twenty -five-mile 
ride to Samail Valley, which had never before been 
seen by a student of the date industry, although it is 
the home of one of the most important commercial 
varieties, the Fardh. Our trip ended rather sensation- 
ally, involving the kingdom in a year of civil war, but 
it also resulted in the introduction to California of 
a number of varieties earlier in ripening than any- 
thing which had theretofore been known. 



PREFACE XV 

From American missionaries I have invariably 
met with a hospitality which can never be repaid. 
The traveler in unbeaten paths realizes better than 
any one else the extent to which the missionary is 
not only the carrier of religion, but of civilization, 
and while he admires the way in which they are 
uplifting the native, he experiences also a purely per- 
sonal feeling of gratitude when he is permitted to rest 
in one of these oases of Occidental culture after 
a more or less- prolonged experience of life that is 
based on so much lower ideals. Without the co- 
operation of missionaries, and in particular of those 
at Busreh, Turkey, who represent the Reformed 
Church in America, my work would not only have 
been far less pleasant — it would have been impossible. 

A few remarks upon the problems of orthography 
in regard to the names of date varieties will be in 
place in this introduction. In order to make Ameri- 
can practice conform to that of the rest of the 
scientific world, I have transliterated all Arabic date 
names on a uniform system, which is based on the 
principle in use for a century or more, that consonants 
should be pronounced as in English but vowels as 
in Spanish or other continental languages. This is 
the simplest and most natural method of dealing 
with a hard problem, and it is particularly simple 
for residents of the southwestern United States, be- 
cause they are already familiar with the pronunciation 
of Spanish words. The system was elaborated by the 
International Congress of Orientalists at Geneva, 
in 1894, and recommended for general adoption; it 
has been adopted with occasional insignificant changes 
by the British, Indian and Egyptian governments, 
the geographical bureau of the United States govern- 



xvi PREFACE 

ment, and by many other foreign governments, as well 
as learned societies, institutions, and individuals, so 
that it may fairly be said to represent the universal 
practice of enlightened people. It seems a pity that 
the date growers of the United States should be the 
only ones to lag behind the march of progress; and 
I have, therefore, not hesitated to make changes in 
accepted spellings, when necessary to make them 
conform to standard, excepting in a few cases like 
the word Deglet, which may fairly be considered a 
trade name now, and the correct form of which, 
Daqlet, would hardly be recognized. 

There is the less excuse for the confusion into which 
date nomenclature has fallen because most of it was 
caused by the erroneous supposition that what was a 
correct spelhng for the French language was a correct 
spelhng for the English. A date was therefore intro- 
duced under the name of Rhars, when all English 
practice demanded that it be called Ghars — a spelling 
that is also in more accord with the pronunciation of 
natives in the district where it grows. As the French 
government itself has now adopted the spelling 
Ghars, there is little excuse for asking Americans to 
retain a French mistake which the French themselves 
repudiate, and I have accordingly adopted the 
spelhng Ghars throughout. 

Even more conspicuously unnecessary is such a 
spelling as Hadji, for a word which is correctly trans- 
literated by everyone Hajji. The Frenchman, with 
his peculiar pronunciation of the letter j, may have 
needed the spelling Hadji, but surely the American 
did not; yet he was asked to accept it, as he was 
asked at another period to accept the vulgar pronun- 
ciation of the Egyptian peasant — Haggi. If pro- 



PREFACE xvii 

nunciation is to be based on any principle at all, it 
should be based upon the practice of the best educated 
people, not the worst. There is only one correct way 
of spelling the word in English, and that is Hajji; 
it is the simple and natural way; what justification 
can be given for an attempt to confuse the reader by 
any other spelling? 

In accordance with the principle that vowels 
should be pronounced as in the continental languages, 
the reader will find Thuri, instead of the more familiar 
but more misleading Thoory; and so on through the 
list. Certainly the English pronunciation of vowels is 
not so simple and rational that we should desire to 
perpetuate it in words from an oriental language. 

The appearance of the letter q unaccompanied by 
the vowel u, which always attends it in English, may 
at first cause a little surprise, but there is no valid 
argument against it. I use it to transliterate the 
Arabic letter Qaf, which is properly pronounced like 
a gutteral ck in dick, but colloquially is often pro- 
nounced like g, whence we have Deglet for the more 
correct Daqlet. 

Most of the changes which I have made in date 
nomenclature have been due to the necessity of 
purging the list from incorrect French influence and 
bringing it into line with the usage of the whole 
modern scientific world, including the French; at 
other times I have substituted the classical form, 
which would be used by all educated men, for some 
vulgar dialectal form, as Kasbeh for Kseba. Arab 
names are not easy for the layman — often they 
bother even the expert; but I believe that they will 
ofifer fewer problems now that they are made system- 
atic, and if the reader is still unable to twist his 



xviii PREFACE 

tongue around them he may derive consolation from 
the fact that many other good men have had the 
same difficulty. Two thousand years ago the omni- 
scient Pliny explained in his great Natural History 
that he could give a list of forty-nine varieties of 
dates — if he could only remember their barbarous 
names. As he could not, his list was cut down to a 
dozen, and even these he designated by Greek or 
Latin names. Eventually we may find it desir- 
able to adopt a similar expedient and use the English 
equivalents for Arabic words. For this reason, and 
because of their general interest, I have, when possible, 
added the translation of each variety name. 

PAUL B. POPENOE. 

Altadena, California 
September 1, 1913. 



THE DATE PALM 



CHAPTER I 
THE DATE PALM 

The date palm is something more than a fruit 
tree which furnishes the principal means of existence 
to hundreds of thousands of people. To the Arab it is 
a sacred institution identified with the Semitic race 
since the df^wn of history and consecrated by 
Muhammad both in his public and his private life. 

"There is," said the prophet, "among the trees 
one tree which is blessed, as is the Muslim (among 
men) : it is the palm;"* and he explained on another 
occasion the reason for this pre-eminence, as follows: 

"Honor your uncle, the palm: I call him your 
uncle because he was created from the earth left over 
after the creation of Adam (on whom be peace and the 
blessings of God!). The palm resembles man by its 
erect position and its height, by its separation in two 
sexes, and by its necessity for the pollination of the 
female. If its head is cut off it dies; if its heart is 
exposed to too great a strain, it perishes. Is it not the 
same with man.? If its leaves are cut off it can not 
grow others in the same place; no more can man if 
he loses his members. It is covered with a fibre, 
analogous to the hair of man."t 

The tradition continues that Adam cut his hair 
and nails with an instrument miraculously provided, 
and buried the cuttings in the ground of Eden. 
Immediately there sprang from the spot a palm tree, 
fully grown and covered with ripe dates. Adam fell 

* Al Bukhari, Ch. 42, on authority of Abddllah b. 'Umar. 
fKamal al Din of Cairo in "The Life of Animals and Plants." 
The tradition is given in slightly different forms by many writers. 



22 DATEGROWING 

on his face in adoration, and the angel Gabriel, appear- 
ing, designated the palm as his future food, saying: 
"You were created of the same material as this tree 
which shall nourish you." 

Satan, of course, was not long in appearing on the 
scene, and asked Adam why he was thus prostrated in 
an attitude of worship before a tree. When he learned 
of the circumstances of its creation, and realized what 
a proof it was of the beneficence of God, he wept 
bitterly; his tears falling on the roots of the palm 
caused it suddenly to put forth the spines which still 
make its leaves formidable. 

The earliest known records of Egypt and Assyria 
show that the palm held almost as important a place 
then as it does today.* In the Bible it appears only 
as an ornamental, the climate of Palestine not being 
well adapted to ripen the fruit; but it was one of the 
chief motifs in the decoration of Solomon's temple, 
and according to Arab historians it was that mighty 
potentate who impressed on the back of the seed the 
small circle (the germ pore), by the imprint of his 
famous ring, of mingled iron and brass, inscribed with 
the secret name of God, by virtue of which he possessed 
control of all animal life and the spirit world. 

Still later the palm served as a shelter to Mary 
when she gave birth to Jesus Christ, and it was by the 
sweet, ripe dates that the pains of her travail were 
allayed. Muhammad tells the story as follows:! 

*Cf- Moldenke. IJber die altagyptische Baume, p. 31. 
f 

fKoran, XIX, 23-26. Critics have not failed to point out that 
this 'account strongly resembles that related by poets of the birth of 
.\pollo, whose mother, Latona, is also said to have been delivered 
under a palm, in the Isle of Delos; and in this case also, the infant 
spoke to her. Pliny and Cicero say the palm in question was in 
existence in their time. 



THEDATEPALM 28 

"The pains of childbirth came upon her near the 
trunk of a palm tree. She said : 'Would to God I had 
died before this, and become a thing forgotten, and 
lost in oblivion!' And he who was beneath her called 
to her, saying: 'Be not grieved; now hath God 
provided a rivulet under thee, and do thou shake the 
body of the palm tree, and it shall let fall ripe dates 
upon thee, ready gathered. And eat, drink and calm 
thy mind.' " 

The commentators,* intent on making the most 
of this Muslim miracle, assert that the palm was 
merely a withered trunk, without any crown of 
leaves, and that this happened in the winter season, 
when dates could not ripen naturally. An early 
tradition puts the birth in Egypt, near the town of 
Ahnas; Sa'ab al Akhbar declares he saw the identical 
palm there, and Makrizi bears witness to the same 
eflPect, but Ibn Batiitah, one of the greatest and most 
accurate of Arab travelers, saysf he saw "traces" of 
it in the church at Bayt Lahm (Bethlehem). On the 
basis of this story, Muhammad advised all mothers 
to nourish themselves with dates, in order that they 
might have good and abundant milk. 

But the final stamp of perfection was put on the 
date by the prophet's own use of it. During his years 
of poverty at Madina, his food for days at a time con- 
sisted of nothing but dates, washed down with water — 
a diet which is still forced upon thousands of nomads 
each year. J When his circumstances became easier, 
he developed into a real gourmand, and among his 

* e.g., Al Baydawi, Yahyd, Al Zamakh. 

fTravels, I, p. 120, Paris, 1853. 

tToId bv his wife Avfsheh and set down by the secretary of Al 
Waqfdi. 



24 DATEGROWING 

favorite dishes were fresh dates and cucumbers, and 
dates with milk or butter.* He drank regularly an 
unfermented liquor, made by pouring water on fresh 
dates and letting it stand over night; therefore this 
drink, called nabidh, is still a favorite at Madina 
and elsewhere. Finally, he declared to his followers: 
"Whoever eats seven dates of the variety called 
Ajweh first thing in the morning will not have to 
fear either poison or treachery that day."t 

With such a history to supplement its physical 
value, it is not surprising that the palm is held in 
veneration by Arabs. 

*Father .Jaussen (Coutumes des Arabes au Pays de Moab, Paris, 
1908) met various individuals who told him they tasted nothing but 
dates and milk for six months at a time. His testimony can be 
confirmed by that of almost every traveler. 

fAl Bukhari, Traditions, Sec. LXX, ch. 43, on authority of 
Salad b. Abu Waqqas. Burokhnrdt (Travels in Arabia, II, p. 211 f.) 
followed by Burton (Pilgrimage, II, p. 401) errs in saying the variety 
thus recommended by Muhammad was Al Birni. Bukharf, who 
wrote in the third century after Muhammad, is the highest authority 
on the Traditions. 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 



CHAPTER II 

THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 

Conditions generally favorable to the production 
of dates are well understood. It is not a tropical 
but a sub-tropical culture. No summer heat is too 
great for it, but it will also tolerate severe frost in 
winter; it is easily satisfied as regards soil, if the water 
supply is sufficient. These are the conditions under 
which its culture has been carried on in the past, and 
they still hold good ; but recent developments indicate 
that dates may be successfully grown in regions which 
have hitherto been considered entirely unsuited to the 
palm; therefore the subject demands a somewhat 
careful study. 

In the United States, Southern California is 
indisputably the region best adapted to commercial 
date culture. Coachella Valley, with its slight rainfall, 
intense summer heat, and prevailingly sandy soil 
exactly fulfills the conventional requirements, as they 
were outlined in the preceding paragraph. For late 
varieties, which require a high sum total of heat to 
mature, and for the Saharan varieties in general, it 
can not be surpassed. It would probably prove 
equally well suited to varieties from the interior of 
Arabia, if we could secure any such. Imperial Valley 
is almost as well adapted to these same varieties, 
although its soil is predominantly clay, and often a 
very stiff clay. But in the Sahara, Deglet Ntirs 
which grow in the heavy clay of the Zil)an are scarcely 
inferior to those which grow in the light sand of the 
Suf. The lower part of the Colorado River Valley 



28 DATE GROWING 

may be classed with these two, physical conditions 
being much the same. 

In Arizona, where dale culture in a scientific 
way was carried on earlier than in California,* condi- 
tions are quite different, particularly in the Salt River 
Valley, where a large part of the rainfall comes in 
midsummer, at a time which proves fatal to success 
with many African dates. Profitable date growing is 
entirely possible here, as also in the Gila and Casa 
Grande Valleys and probably several parts of the 
mesa in Arizona; but not with all the varieties which 
succeed in the adjoining state. Dates must be chosen 
which do not ripen too late, and which are unaffected 
by summer humidity. This eliminates most North 
African dates and leaves Egyptian and Persian Gulf 
varieties as most desirable. 

Within these two states, California and Arizona, 
are the only regions where it can be said, at present, 
with confidence and on the basis of real evidence, that 
date culture is profitable in the United States. There 
are some other regions where it is possible, and where it 
may be and probably will be proved to be profitable, 
but where data have not yet been accumulated which 
enable one to speak with certainty. 

In this class may be put a large part of the 
interior valley of California, the northern half of 
which is named Sacramento and the southern San 
Joaquin. Around its outlet to San Francisco Bay there 
is a region where the climate is probably ill suited to 
the date, but farther north and south it should be 
well adapted to hardy, early ripening sorts. Scattered 
experiments in the past have shown that good dates 

*For its history see Touniey, J. W ., The Date Palm. Ariz. 
Agr. Exp. Sta Bui. No. 2P, Tucson, June, 1898 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 29 

can be grown there, but at present commercial 
planting is checked because of quarantine restrictions 
on imported date palms, and these restrictions are 
likely to prevent development in any rapid manner. 
In the meantime one could make a start by selecting 
some very early seedling in Southern California and 
establishing its offshoots in a warm part of the interior 
valley. When imported offshoots can be introduced 
into the central counties, early sorts from the Persian 
Gulf would give every promise of success. There 
seems no reason why this section of California should 
not become eventually a large producer of dates. 

Finally, there is a small district in Texas, around 
Laredo, where encouraging experiments have been 
made by the Department of Agriculture of the federal 
government. This is evidently a region adapted to 
producing dates, and it completes the list of best 
United States locations for date growers. Most of 
the land in the southwest, which is amply hot and 
dry in summer, is too cold in winter. 

In Mexico there is undoubtedly a large amount of 
land which is well adapted to the culture, just across 
the line from the California border. Conditions here 
are much the same as in Imperial and Coachella 
Valleys to the north. The date palm is a well estab- 
lished industry around the Gulf of California, where 
conditions are not desert-like, particularly because of 
the ocean breezes and consequent humidity. Dates 
do not ripen well, but it is entirely possible that 
suitable varieties could be found which would make 
the culture a paying one there. Probably some parts 
of the plateau in Mexico also are adapted to the 
industry. 

The idea, however, that the palm could fruit 



so DATE GROWING 

only in an arid region has been set aside by further 
investigation and experiment. I found the date grow- 
ing side by side with the banana, coconut, and tropical 
pawpaw {Carica papaya) in Oman, on the eastern 
coast of Arabia; and these three plants all require a 
humid climate. In Tunisia excellent bananas are 
raised in the shade of the palms. But most conclusive 
on this point are some of the tests made in British 
possessions. 

In India, for instance, there has been during the 
last half century a small but continuous effort to 
establish the date palm on a large scale. It has been 
growing there for centuries — introduced, according 
to legend, by the troops of Alexander the Great — 
and in desert regions of the Panjab and Sindh excel- 
lent fruit can be produced. Not content with this, 
the investigators tried to establish it in all the warm 
parts of the peninsula, and although their efforts 
have hitherto failed in most cases, from a com- 
mercial point of view, they have given some surprising 
indications as to the way in which the palm can adapt 
itself to varying weather conditions. The great 
drawback to their work was the arrival, in June, of 
the monsoon rains, which come with great force at 
the very time when the earliest dates are ripening, and 
last until November. At first sight it would appear 
that this made the growing of dates absolutely impos- 
sible, yet there is reason to believe that even this 
obstacle may be eventually overcome. At Saharan- 
pur in the United Provinces, where there is a five 
acre experimental garden, several varieties of very 
fair dates have been found which have been able to 
mature their fruit before the rains set in — and this 
in spite of the fact that the winters there are by no 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 81 

means frostless. Evidently, propagation of these few 
varieties will eventually establish an industry which 
can furnish dates for home use, at least, 

Saharanpur is in Northern India, but the region 
is not typically desert, even without the summer 
rains. At Trichinopoli in Southern India, in a 
genuinely tropical district, success has also been 
obtained in an experimental way, principally with 
seedlings; the superintendent reports* that three 
v,arieties of good dates ripened in 1908. And at 
Bangalore, Lucknow, and many other places in India 
results have been obtained which, while far from making 
commercial production of dates an immediate possi- 
bility, show that the field is by no means hopeless, 
that success depends only on finding suitable varieties, 
and that such varieties can be found. 

In the tropical island of Zanzibar, too, experi- 
ments have been successful enough to warrant the 
government in importing large quantities of offshoots 
from Oman and Busreh. And, closer home, dates 
have been ripened in the West Indies, where seedling 
Tafilalets have proved particularly interesting.! 

As regards extreme of cold, the date palm has 
shown itself remarkably resistant. In central Balu- 
chistan and the highlands of Persia the culture is 
profitable even where the cold is prolonged as well as 
severe; in other regions, where more detailed observa- 
tions have been possible, it has been shown that a 
palm under proper conditions may withstand a 
temperature as low as 5° F. without injury. The 
severe freeze of January, 1913, in the southwestern 

*Iii a letter to the Reporter on Economic Products, Calcutta. 

tJones, Joseph, in Agricultural News, p. 324, Oct. 19, 1907: 
" The fruit (in Dominica) ripened well, there being little loss through 
decay or fermentation." 



Si, DATEGROWING 

United States left the palm little damaged, although 
officially recorded temperatures through which it 
passed were 15° at Indio, Cal., 133^° at Mecca, Cal., 
12° at Tempe, Ariz., 8° and 9° in Texas, and 5}4° at 
Tucson, Ariz. In some cases it killed off many of the 
leaves, but the fruit came on as usual — in fact the 
only damage to flowers was in the case of male palms, 
which seemed in many cases to have been rendered 
sterile by the temperature. Young palms are natur- 
ally more tender, but they can be easily protected. 
No such low temperatures as these have previously 
been recorded from a date-growing country, — in 
Baghdad, for instance, the lowest on record is 17° — 
and that the palm withstood them successfully shows 
that frost need hardly be taken into consideration in 
the future, in selecting a location for palms. 

For the man who wants to go into the commercial 
production of dates in the United States at once, the 
facts which I have quoted will have little importance; 
he can only be advised to confine himself to the 
Salton Basin in California or the low-lying parts of 
Arizona. But the investigator who wants to find how 
far he can extend the date-growing region may get 
encouragement from the experiments of other coun- 
tries, which show that there is at least a possibility of 
growing eatable dates in any country where the 
summers are hot. In deciding as to the climate for 
dates, it has been the custom to sum up the maxima 
of heat; but this is a misleading method, for Vinson 
has clearly shown that the growth of the palm varies 
not according to the heat of the day, but according to 
the added heat of day and night: that is, the palm 
grows best when the night temperature is nearest 
that of the day, provided both be fairly high. There- 




< - 



< o 

z I 

Zl 



o ■ 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 83 

fore, a region that has hot days but cool nights would 
be less suited to the palm than one in which the nights 
were hotter, even if the maximum day temperature 
was a few degrees lower. 

In the choice of soil, few fruits seem so easily 
pleased as the date. It is usually said that a sandy 
loam is best, and such a soil is certainly good, but 
the statement that it is best is a dogma that would 
be very diflficult to prove. 

The Arabic authorities, as usual, indulge in a 
great deal of fanciful speculation on the subject. 
Qastus says* a piece of land "spotted with black 
and white" is the best. If he means anything, it is 
probably that the land should be rich, with some 
saline eflflorescence. Amin al Madani, who represents 
the most enlightened modern ideas, says, f "the best 
soil for growing the palm is a sweet, red clay, and the 
second best a black soil, sandy and alkaline." It is 
a widespread Arab theory that land which has been 
cultivated for a long time is the most desirable, and 
the modern Baghdadi is always pleased when he can 
plant on the site of some prehistoric city. The soil 
of Busreh, which produces excellent dates, is an 
exceedingly stiff clay. Much of the Egyptian soil is 
pure adobe. It has already been mentioned that 
Deglet Nur in Algeria succeeds in sand or clay. If a 
sandy soil is selected, however, it will have to be 
liberally enriched with commercial fertilizers, or, 
better, barnyard manure, in order to produce good 

*Qastus b. Luqa al Rumi, The Book of Greek Agriculture, Ch. 
75. This is one of the oldest of Arabic authorities on horticulture; 
in fact, its origin is lost in obscurity. The best trans, is that of 
Sarjius b. Halias, an incomplete MS. of which I possess. 

fFaqir Amin b. Hasan al Madani, Culture of the Date Palm, 
lithographed at the Hasaniyeh press, Madina, A. D. 1886. 



34 DATEGROWING 

results. Experiments in Coachella Valley leave no 
doubt as to that, and the government experiment 
stations have swallowed up carload after carload of 
manure. 

One may undertake date culture on any fairly 
good soil, if he uses a little care in selecting varieties 
adapted to it, but there is one desirable condition: 
good drainage. The palm requires a large amount of 
water, under ordinary circumstances, and unless this 
water can find an outlet the ground will soon become 
water-logged — a condition that will be especially 
serious if the soil is alkaline. 

A little alkalinity in the soil is no hindrance, for 
the palm is remarkably tolerant of it. Arabs consider 
that it does best in a salty soil, and many occidental 
investigators have followed them in this opinion, but 
the point can not yet be considered as proved. Ancient 
writers did not hesitate to advise that common salt 
be added to the soil, in cases where it was lacking. 
I know of no region where this practice is followed 
today, but I never met an Arab who thought that 
alkali could injure a palm, even in large quantities. 
They are mistaken on this last point, however, for 
it is easy to find in Algeria palms which have reached 
the limit of alkali tolerance, and others which have 
passed it and no longer flourish. Observation would 
undoubtedly show the same results in other parts of 
the world. 

Surface indications are by no means a reliable 
guide, and anyone who contemplates growing dates 
should investigate his soil to the depth of six or eight 
feet. It may be excessively saline on the surface, but 
if there is one stratum of good soil in which the roots 
can spread out, success will be possible. One per cent 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY S5 

may be taken as a practical limit for alkalinity; 
if there is a layer of soil with less salt than this, one 
may grow dates profitably, but if the soil at all depths 
contains more than this, another location should be 
foimd. Best results will be secured if the alkali does 
not exceed 0.6%, and 3% may be conveniently taken 
as a limit beyond which the palm will not grow. 

If the irrigating water is free from alkalinity, it 
will, of course, help to counteract that of the soil. 
On the other hand, if the water is brackish it is 
essential to keep well within the limit of alkali resist- 
ance in the soil, otherwise the combination of salty 
soil and brackish water will be too much for the 
palm, even though neither one were excessively 
alkaline, taken by itself. Salt on the surface of the 
ground is most conspicuous but does the least harm, 
and one frequently sees palms flourishing in a soil 
which is incrusted with alkali on the surface, so that it 
looks as if covered with snow. In such cases it is 
certain that there is fairly good soil underneath. The 
so-called black alkali, consisting of carbonates of 
sodium and potassium, is much more dangerous than 
the more or less neutral chlorids, sulfates and nitrates 
of sodium, potassium and magnesium, which go by 
the name of white alkali. 

It need hardly be mentioned that young plants 
are more affected by alkali than old ones, and that 
seedlings will fail in a soil that yet might give good 
results with adult palms. It is also to be noted that 
some varieties of date are much more resistant to 
alkali than others: Ghars and Zahidi are particularly 
valuable in this respect. 

To sum up: one should investigate before he 
begins, and should not try to grow varieties of dates 



36 DATEGROWING 

ill suited to his conditions; but if he investigates 
intelligently he may go ahead in confidence, for any 
good, well-drained soil, even though it be slightly 
alkaline, is adapted to most varieties of dates. 

One of the fundamental propositions of date 
culture is that the palm requires a large supply of 
water for irrigation. This rule is apparently subject 
to some striking exceptions, and future experiments 
will probably change our ideas on the subject still 
more, though they can hardly shake the fact that the 
palm is a water-loving plant. 

It is, indeed, astonishing to find what large 
quantities of water the palm can take without injury. 
The immense plantations around Busreh — the most 
important, commercially, in the world — are ordinarily 
irrigated, and copiously irrigated, every twelve hours 
throughout the year, for the operation is performed 
by the action of the Persian Gulf tide, which backs up 
the fresh water in the Shatt al Arab. The admirably 
managed plantations of Fardh dates in Oman usually 
get a good irrigation once a week. Many of the 
palms in Egypt are continuously inundated for two 
months during the summer, and the growers never 
worry about possible danger to the crop unless the 
water has been on their roots for more than seventy 
days. Certainly there are few fruit trees that could 
survive such tests. 

It is such characteristics, and the fact that the 
palm in the desert is only found around water holes, 
that led poets to name it Friend of the Fountain. 
Faqir Amin al Madani expresses the general opinion 
when he says: "Know that no culture in the world 
stands more water than the palm, and turn the 
stream on it every day, remembering that every 




AFTER A HARD FREEZE 
Palms at Tempe, Arizona, lost many leaves in temperature of 12 °F., 
but crop was uninjured. Egyptian palm, variety Badrashin. 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 37 

time you increase the water supply you increase the 
crop, and increase equally the strength of the palm 
itself. The palm flourishes under such conditions, and 
its strength and vigor will be so much increased that 
ten palms grown under such conditions will be worth 
one hundred grown in the ordinary manner." 

Opposing this we find some surprising facts. At 
Madina, which to an Arab is the world's headquarters 
of scientific date growing, many of the palms are 
never irrigated,' but depend on the insignificant rain- 
fall for "whatever moisture they may receive, and the 
accurate Burckhardtf assures us "the fruit of the 
latter, although less abundant, is more esteemed." 
In Egypt some of the best dates are said to be grown 
without irrigation, particularly the varieties Amhat 
and Samani. One grove in Coachella Valley produced 
well last year, although irrigated only six times. 

Such facts have led many to suppose that the 
palm might give good results with a small amount of 
water. We have not yet suflBcient data to decide on 
this point, but one should be very cautious in trying 
to grow dates by dry farming. All of the above cases 
may be explained by supposing that the roots of the 
palms reach ground water, in which case they would 
of course require no surface irrigation. The Tempe 
garden has not been irrigated for seven years, because 
of the high level of ground water. The largest planta- 
tion at Baghdad— that of Kathim Pasha, with 20,000 
palms — had not been irrigated for a year, when I 
saw it, and yet it produced a good crop of fruit; but 
investigation showed that it was located in what had 
formerly been the bed of the Tigris River, and although 

fBurckhardt, John Lewis. Travels in Arabia, vol. IL p- 211 ff. 
London, 1829. 



38 DATE GROWING 

the stream has taken a new channel, doubtless there 
is still underground water below the plantation. 
It is also proper to note that, in the case of Madina 
palms. Burton contradicts his predecessor, saying, 
"One of the reasons for the excellence of the Madinah 
dates is the quantity of water they obtain; each garden 
or field has its well; and even in the hottest weather 
the Persian wheel floods the soil every third day. 
It has been observed that the date tree can live in dry 
and barren spots; but it loves the beds of streams and 
places where moisture is procurable. The palms 
scattered over the other parts of the plain, and 
depending solely on rainwater, produce less fruit, 
and that too of an inferior quality."* 

The result of these facts is to leave a grower some- 
what uncertain when he asks himself the important 
question, "How much water do I need for an acre of 
palms?" Estimates published in the United States 
vary from one-fifth of a miner's inch per acre to one 
inch. It is certainly much better to start in with 
too much than too little, and in the present state of 
knowledge one would be ill-advised who attempted to 
start a date plantation without an abundant water 
supply, even on soil which held moisture particularly 
well. On such a soil, the estimate of one-fifth inch per 
acre might possibly suffice; on a light sandy soil one 
would not have too much if he possessed a full inch 
for each fifty palms, and in general this quantity 
should be available, if one wishes to be safe. If a 

*Burton, R. F., Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage of Al Madinah 
and Meccah, vol. 1, p. 403. As to the excellence of the unirrigated 
fruit, Burckhardt is more likely to be correct, for a letter of Muham- 
mad to Harith b. Kaftan is extant, concerning a division of spoils 
in which the prophet took the unirrigated palms and left the irrigated 
ones; and he was not the man to take the worst of anything. Cf. 
Jithkn, art. Dhamineh. 



THE DATE PALM COUNTRY 39 

subsidiary crop is to be grown between the palms, 
one must not fail to make allowance for the additional 
supply of water needed. And this supply will have 
to be an absolute minimum, for the palm naturally 
demands most water in midsummer, when the water 
supply is probably at the lowest point it reaches 
during the year. 

Cold water is a disadvantage, and warm water 
a corresponding advantage. The superlative Khal- 
aseh of Hasa is irrigated by hot springs, and the first 
dates which arrive on the market of Masqat (about 
May 15) are from plantations around hot springs. 
The water of wells in the southwestern United States 
is ordinarily warm enough to be satisfactory. In 
Samail Valley and other parts of Oman the water is, 
in effect, artificially warmed, by passing through 
cement conduits several miles long, in the hot, open 
beds of the dry watercourses. 

It is worthy of remark that most Arab date 
plantations get practically no cultivation, and that 
if the surface of the ground were kept in a condition 
to retain moisture, a less amount of water would un- 
doubtedly give the same results. But in a dry climate 
like that of Coachella Valley there is already enough 
difficulty in keeping choice, soft dates like Deglet Nur 
from shriveling or mummifying as they ripen, and 
anyone who embarks in date culture without making 
sure that he has a liberal supply of water — not much 
less than an inch to the acre — and without making 
sure that this supply will be permanent and not 
subject to diminution during the hottest months of 
the year, is only inviting failure. 




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COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 



CHAPTER III 

COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 
It was shown in the last chapter that the palm 
may be grown experimentally in many places where 
it cannot be grown profitably; and that in many 
regions it may sometime be grown with profit, al- 
though there is not yet sufl&cient proof to warrant 
anyone making an investment at present. This is a 
vital point to one who intends to take up the culture 
with the purpose of deriving profit from it, and he 
can not afiFord to confuse successful culture with 
profitable commercial culture. There is a wide 
difference between them, which I will try to show 
in some detail; not only does it exist in respect to 
the physical conditions under which the palm may 
be grown, but also in the means by which it is repro- 
duced. The question is, how shall the palm be propa- 
gated to give not only good results, but good results 
from a commercial point of view, the point of view of a 
man who is more interested in cash returns than in 
advancing the cause of pure science? 

A slight consideration of the case, or experience 
with any other kind of agriculture, will show that it is 
important to produce good fruit, but it is equally 
important to produce fruit that is uniformly good, 
for profitable marketing depends on having a large 
enough quantity of fruit that is uniform, to permit it 
to be graded, and sold as graded fruit of a standard 
pack. The grower who packed half a dozen kinds 
of apples, or oranges, in the same box would get little 
more than a cull price for the box, even though each 



44 D A T E G R O W I N G 

of the apples or oranges might, individually, be of 
first class quality; but if his box is solid Winesaps, 
or Washington Navels, he will get the highest market 
price. The same thing is true, and always will be 
true, of dates, and the grower who is going into the 
culture commercially must keep this fact before his 
eyes at every stage of his operations. 

Now, good dates can be grown from seed. All 
the choice varieties in existence have probably origi- 
nated in that way, and then been propagated slowly 
by offshoots. Often seedling dates are inferior but 
occasionally they are very superior, and anyone who 
broadly condemns seedling dates as worthless is merely 
inviting ridicule. Nevertheless, it is not possible to 
attain the highest degree of success in commercial 
growing of dates if one depends entirely on seedlings, 
because no matter how good their fruit may be, it 
can never be uniform, and that is a necessary factor 
in meeting the demands of the high-priced trade. 

Dates are produced commercially from seedling 
palms in three countries — Mexico, Spain, and India. 
In all the rest of the world, including all regions 
which have any appreciable influence on the world's 
commerce in dates, commercial production is solely 
by means of offshoots. An examination of conditions 
in various countries, then, should form a reliable 
guide for American planters. 

"Everywhere in Mexico," says W. T. Swingle,* 
"date culture is carried on in the most primitive 
manner, seedlings being everywhere grown, and the 
propagation of superior varieties by offshoots nearly 
or quite unknown." He concludes that as far as 
Americans are concerned, "even the growers of 

*Iii Bui. B. P. I. No. 53, p. 135. 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 45 

second-class and ordinary dates have no cause for 
alarm," because "at present the inferior and badly 
packed seedling dates produced in Mexico are the 
poorest that reach our markets, and are of no import- 
ance whatever." 

Conditions are similar in Spain. No dates are 
exported, for the reason that they are not fit for 
export. Scarcely two palms can be found that bear 
fruit alike, and the general bad quality of it is by no 
means wholly due to its climate. Although Spain 
might easily grow all the dates it needs for its own 
use, if the industry were on a scientific basis and 
only desirable varieties perpetuated, it actually 
imports large quantities of offshoot-grown dates 
from the Tafilalet oases of Morocco, which supply all 
the choice trade (at about twenty-five cents a pound), 
while the local seedlings are sold at two or three cents 
a pound, and find a difiicult sale even at such prices. 

In India the industry is of very little importance, 
the dates produced being small in quantity, and being 
mainly sold in the villages where they are grown. 
Practically all the dates on the market are imported 
from the Persian Gulf, where the trees are all grown 
from offshoots, and D. Milne, director of date growing 
experiments in the Panjab,* says that the best of the 
native fruit is inferior to the worst of the imported. 
A generation ago a movement was started to make 
India a great date-growing country, through seedlings. 
Many of these were grown, but the results were so 
unsatisfactory that this has been given up, and the 
government is now devoting all its energies to the 
production of palms from offshoots, for which purpose 
large quantities are imported from Busreh each year. 

*Bul. Panjab Dept. of Agriculture, 1012. 



46 DATEGROWING 

The important date-growing countries of the 
world are Arabia, Mesopotamia, and North Africa, 
including Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In 
every one of these regions propagation, unless by 
accident, is solely from offshoots, which are taken 
from palms of recognized merit. 

Experience of centuries, then, has led to the 
same result in every part of the world where dates 
can be grown. It has proved that high-grade dates 
of uniform quality can, under existing circumstances, 
be produced only by offshoots, and that the plantation 
of seedlings for such a purpose is not practicable. 

To this experience of native growers is now 
added the testimony of modern scientists, who are 
not swayed by theory or misled by incomplete ob- 
servations in practice. These men have surveyed 
the entire field, have gathered all the evidence avail- 
able, sifted it, weighed it. Some of the greatest living 
scientists have devoted their attention to the subject. 
They are unanimous in agreeing that the planting of 
seedlings with the idea of growing dates for the fancy 
trade is inadvisable. So far as the records show, there 
is not a scientist of established reputation in the 
world today who advocates the planting of seedling 
dates, under the present circumstances, for the purpose 
of producing high-class fruit. 

The testimony of the rest of the world, then, is 
unanimous. But in the United States, during the last 
ten years, large quantities of date seeds have been 
planted, under better conditions than have ever 
before been furnished. If seedlings could be successful 
anywhere, they would be in the United States, where 
time and expense have been lavished in order to give 
them a chance to do their best. 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 47 

Has there been anything in the history of this 
work to change the verdict of science? Careful survey 
of the entire field shows that there has not. The 
seedlings, under perfect conditions as regards planting 
and cultivation, have indeed distinguished themselves 
in various ways. They have been made to grow faster, 
to flower sooner, to bear fruit earlier, than anywhere 
else. But the fundamental difficulty, that of their 
variability, remains, and there is no evidence to 
prove that it has been diminished in any way. Only 
one thing can diminish it — the scientific breeding of 
a pure race.* American enterprise has already 
undertaken this, but it will require many plant- 
generations to accomplish the result desired. When 
that time comes, seeds will be available that will 
probably perpetuate the parent with fair accuracy. 
But that is merely a possibility of the future, and as 
far as the present commercial production of choice 
dates is concerned it has absolutely no bearing. 

There are, of course, many seedlings which bear 

excellent fruit. Obviously, it is scientifically possible 

for a seedling to be better than its parent; but it is 

scientifically probable that it will be worse. All the 

varieties now in existence in the world are probably 

the result of the isolation of a chance seedling and its 

subsequent perpetuation by offshoots, and the creation 

of such new and improved varieties will go on in the 

United States just as much as, or more than, it has in 

other parts of the world. But this is purely an 

idealistic matter from a commercial point of view, 

because of the long time necessary to multiply a 

variety which starts as one tree. The commercial 

•Because, of course, the variability of seedlings is due to cross- 
pollination through centimes. From this it results that soft date 
seeds may even produce dry dates, or vice-versa. 



48 DATEGROWING 

grower of today does not want to work solely for 
posterity. Such work is properly a side issue with 
private growers, or a field for state or governmental 
experimentation. 

The commercial grower who plants seeds on the 
theory that he will get a new and improved strain 
is merely starting where the Arabs did a thousand 
years ago. There are already many good varieties of 
dates in the world. The man who grows palms by 
taking offshoots from these is capitalizing the expe- 
rience of centuries. Instead of working for the 
future, he is letting the past work for him. 

An examination of various plantations of seed- 
lings in the United States gives no indication that 
these can produce dates to compete with the choice 
product of offshoots from palms of world-famous 
varieties. The best that advocates of the com- 
mercial planting of seedlings claim is that 10% 
or 15% of the trees may be good — and note that the 
claim is, good, not good and uniform. Seedlings, 
indeed, offer an excellent opportunity for the rancher 
to grow dates for his own use. If he plants them as a 
windbreak, or as a hedge around his field, his expense 
will be little, the land occupied will be of small value, 
and he will have plenty of dates which are good to eat. 

But the dates from ten palms may all be good, 
considered separately, and yet if they differ each one 
from the other, they can not be graded and sold at 
the top market price, no matter how good they may be. 

That is the situation which faces the man who 
plants seedlings for commercial purposes. He must 
expect to confine himself to the lower priced trade; 
and it is not from this trade, but from the fancy trade, 
that large profits are to be made. This fancy, profit- 



^^ vt^l^f S^"*'^ 







>• 



..*- .- -TtSIF 



I'AlNTlxNU Ul'FSHOOT BASES 
A coat of white lead or asphaltum is a desirable precaution before palms 
are shipped or planted. 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 49 

able trade will be open solely to the grower whose 
dates are uniform— and that means the grower who 
plants offshoots. 

There is one particular way in which seedlings 
can be of value to the commercial grower, although 
not in the form of immediate cash returns — that is, 
as a school of experience. If he has a quantity of 
seedling dates he can experiment as much as he likes 
in transplanting, cutting offshoots, striving to increase 
or decrease the . production of offshoots, handling the 
pollen, and in many other fields where there is still 
much to be learned ; and he can do this without feeling 
that he is losing money by injuring a profitable crop. 
Furthermore, he will be certain to have an abundance 
of pollen whenever he wants it. And if among his 
seedlings there is one of exceptional merit he can 
proceed to the propagation of this by offshoots, with 
the idea of eventually getting enough of this one 
variety to make a profitable planting; or he can sell 
the offshoots in areas which are now under quarantine 
against the scale diseases, because seedling palms 
and their offshoots are usually free from disease if 
they are reasonably protected from infection. From 
his seedlings, too, he will have plenty of fruit for his 
home use, since for that purpose it makes no difference 
whether it is uniform or not, as long as it is eatable. 
No one, therefore, can afford to neglect seedling dates, 
any more than he can afford to depend on them; but 
as Swingle says,t "Any proposal to grow seedling 
dates alone on a commercial scale as a source of profit 
is, to say the least, premature." 

It is not necessary to insist on the practical dis- 

tSwingle, W. T. The Present Status of Date Culture in the 
Southwestern States. U. S. Dept. of Agr., B.P.I., Circular No. 129, 
p. 6. Washington, June 7, 1913. 



50 DATEGROWING 

advantage of the equality of sex which comes from 
planting seeds — the drawback is too apparent. One 
must wait several years before his palms bloom, and 
in the meantime he is caring for fifty or sixty males 
out of every hundred palms — males which he will 
destroy as soon as he can detect them, but in the mean- 
time all must be watered, fertilized, cultivated alike. 
Let us take a concrete instance: A. and B. start date 
plantations at the same time, the former with one 
hundred offshoots, the latter with one hundred 
seedlings. At the end of five years A. is getting a 
profitable crop from every one of his hundred palms, 
while B. has thrown away fifty or more males and 
thirty or forty of the remaining females, and is rue- 
fully contemplating the mixed quality of the rest. 
The knowledge that his dates are good to eat does 
not compensate him for the fact that the product of 
his twelve or fifteen remaining trees is too diverse 
for anything but low-priced trade. 

In practice, of course, B. would partly overcome 
this handicap by planting a very large number of 
seeds; yet the principle holds good. And in addition, 
every palm planted means so much more expense 
in cultivation, as well as the value of the ground 
which it occupies until it is dug up and thrown away. 

I alluded to the possibility of breeding a strain 
of dates that will come fairly true to seed. This is a 
field in which there will be a real future, but as it is 
not likely to be entered by the commercial grower, 
it is hardly worth while to dwell on it at length. 
The United States Department of Agriculture and the 
University of Arizona staff have undertaken to breed 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 51 

a pure race of Deglet Nurs,* and a good start has 
already been made, but it will require a number of 
plant generations to fix the type, and it must not be 
assumed that because a seed is nearly pure Deglet Nur 
on both sides, it will be exempt from a tendency to 
variation; neither can the undesirable preponderance 
of males be eliminated. While planting pure-bred 
seed will give far better results than planting ordi- 
nary seed of mixed parentage, yet it will never take 
the place of a sexual propagation — in this case, by 
offshoots — as the best way to multiply date palms. 

At present this is mere theory, for although the 
purification of the one variety, Deglet Nur, has been 
started, it is by no means finished. Nevertheless, 
anyone who desires to plant seeds at the present time 
should certainly take advantage of the work that has 
already been done, providing he wants Deglet Nur 
seed, by securing seed from the Bureau of Plant 
Industry. 

Dr. L. Trabut, Algerian government botanist, 
considers that Deglet Nur in some Tunisian oases has 
been unknowingly inbred until the strain is much 
purer than in Algeria, and likely to give better results 
when planted from seed. The same is probably true 
with regard to the Fardh dates of Oman, since their 
culture is confined to a few oases where they largely 
predominate, and it is therefore likely that males in 
use will be seedling Fardhs, rather than seedlings of 
some other variety. The results obtained in growing 
Tafilalet dates from seed give reason to believe that 
Majhul has been inbred there until it is purer than 

*Mason, Silas C. Date Growing in Southern California. Report 
of Thirty-fourth Fruit Growers' Convention, p. 170. Sacramento, 
Stote Printing OflBce, 1908. 



52 DATEGROWING 

most dates. But in planting seeds of ordinary com- 
mercial dates one takes the maximum risk of getting 
unsatisfactory results, since the males from which they 
are pollinated are usually chance seedlings, and likely 
to be seedlings of inferior varieties, usually dry dates, 
which have been dropped by natives. 

As occasional brilliant results achieved by seed- 
ling dates in the United States have caused the larger 
percentage of failures to be overlooked, it is worth 
while to quote the observations of some of the scien- 
tists who have given the subject critical study. 

J. Dybowski, former superintendent of the Jardin 
Colonial, Paris, says in "Traite Pratique des Cultures 
Tropicales," Challamel, Paris, 1902, vol. I, p. 493: 

"The date palm is multiplied with great facility 
by means of seeds, which germinate readily as soon 
as they are placed in contact with the soil. But the 
plant, because of the antiquity of its culture, possesses 
an extreme variability, so that, no matter how much 
care is used in selecting the seeds, one is never certain 
that he will not see the plants retrograde toward a 
more primitive type and, later, give only worthless 
fruits. We must, then, consider that this means of 
propagation should be entirely abandoned in actual 
practice, and that no one should hope by it to trans- 
plant to a new locality the culture of this tree." 

Dr. George Schweinfurth, explorer and most 
famous of modern botanists in Egypt, in Gartenflora 
(Berlin), vol. 50, pp. 506 ff : 

"All date palms grown from seed give results of 
the highest degree of uncertainty in respect to the 
transmission of desirable characteristics. In addition, 
the majority of the seedlings are of the male sex. 
The young offshoots, growing at the base of the trunk, 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 53 

alone guarantee the purity of the race and especially 
(the identity of) the sex." 

Text Book of Egyptian Agriculture, published by 
Department of Agricultural and Technical Education, 
Ministry of Education, Cairo, 1911; Ed. by G. P. 
Foaden, sec. -gen. Khedivial Agr. Soc, Cairo, and F. 
Fletcher, principal of the School of Agriculture, Gizeh: 

"Dates are propagated either by seed or by 
suckers. As with most other fruits, dates do not 
always come true to seed, hence the only sure way to 
obtain good dates is to obtain suckers from trees of 
established excellence. Propagation from seed is of 
little value when we desire to obtain dates of the same 
quality as those from which seeds were obtained, or 
when we wish to obtain a correct proportion of male 
to female trees. Again, seedling palms are usually 
poor, and much later in maturing their fruit. Gener- 
ally the fruits from such trees have large seeds and 
little flesh." 

Woodrow, the acknowledged authority on horti- 
culture in India at the present day, says in his "Trop- 
ical Gardening" (1910), that he planted seeds of good 
imported dates of known varieties; of the resulting 
palms a few were good, but the rest he could not dis- 
tinguish in any way from Phoenix sylvestris, the wild 
date palm of India, the fruit of which is worthless. 

Dr. E. Bonavia, the pioneer authority on date 
culture in India, says in the Indian Agriculturist for 
May 16, 1885, "In the Lucknow garden alone there 
are upwards of 252 seedlings, varying from twelve to 
thirteen years old, and I am informed that there are 
hardly two alike." 

W. T. Swingle, "The Date Palm," Bui. No. 53, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 1904, p. 18: 



54 DATEGROWING 

"Date palms may be grown from seed, and are 
generally so grown in Mexico and India, but if so 
propagated something over half the palms are males, 
which produce no fruit whatever, while of the remain- 
ing female plants probably, on the average, not more 
than one in ten produces good fruit. This would 
mean that in planting one hundred seeds, on the 
average only four or five palms bearing good dates 
would be secured, and probably as many more of 
second quality, or in all some 10% of the number 
planted would yield edible fruit. It should be said 
that in Arizona, and even in Mexico, very many of 
the seedling sorts do not reach maturity because of 
the insufiicient summer heat; but if grown in the 
Salton Basin, where all the sorts could matui'e, a 
larger proportion, perhaps 15%, would produce fruit 
that could be used." 

Ibid., p. 20: 

"The seedlings of a single sort of date may 
present the most remarkable variations, and usually 
the parent type is not exactly reproduced by any of 
the offspring. This is clearly shown by the experi- 
ments of Col. Sam Taylor, of Winters, Cal., who tried 
to propagate from seed the valuable, early-ripening, 
Wolfskin date on his place. This was done because 
the palm had ceased to produce offshoots before its 
value was recognized. Many of these seedling dates 
have fruited, but none resembles in the slightest 
degree the parent variety; most of them are much 
later and consequently fail to mature at Winters, 
where the summer heat is insuflScient to ripen any 
but the earliest sorts." 

David Fairchild, "Persian Gulf Dates," Bureau 



COMMERCIAL DATE GROWING 55 

of Plant Industry Bui. No. 54, Washington, 1903, 
p. 20: 

"There are thousands of seedlings called 'degal', 
but these form a small proportion of the plantations 
and are recognized as bearing inferior dates. The 
market demand is for special uniform qualities, and 
these seedling dates are excluded because of their 
variability." 

Ibid., p. 21: "There are hundreds of varieties of 
dates in the Persian Gulf region, nearly every seedling 
being more or less dififerent from its neighbor." 

D. Milne, Economic Botanist to Government of 
the Panjab, in charge of date culture there and the 
recognized modern authority on the subject in India, 
in a letter to me, dated October 24, 1912: 

"Regarding propagation of date palms by seeds 
as compared to propagation by suckers, there is in my 
judgment no room for two opinions. I wish you had 
had time to go to the western side of the Panjab with 
me. There are many excellent examples there of the 
stupidity of the propagation of date palms by seed. 
There I could have shown you thousands of date 
palms grown from seed, and which produce dates 
only fit for feeding to goats. Growing side by side 
with these are date trees propagated from suckers, 
and which yield most excellent dates. We have also 
here trees grown from the seeds of excellent Arabian 
and Egyptian fruits, and these in many cases yield 
fruits of the most inferior kinds." 

Dr. L. Trabut, botanist of the government of 
Algeria, and the recognized authority on North 
African botany and horticulture, in written statement 
given to me at Algiers, May 23, 1913: 



56 DATEGROWING 

"Theory and practice show that fruits grown 
from seed under ordinary conditions do not come true, 
because of the cross pollination that has taken place, 
usually during the course of many generations. For 
this reason, date seeds selected indiscriminately, 
even though they be from fruit of one variety, can 
not be expected to reproduce the characteristics of 
the female parent. 

"Theory and practice also show, however, that 
it is possible to breed a pure variety of any fruit, so 
that it will perpetuate itself by seeds and each genera- 
tion will be fairly true to type. This has been done 
in the case of the Reine Claude prune, in the case of 
Algerian oranges, in various grapes and elsewhere. 
It is not a work that can be accomplished quickly, 
and in the cases mentioned the process of purifying 
the strain has been going on for years, perhaps 
centuries. 

"The same process can be applied to dates. If a 
male of known origin is selected, and then a female 
of the same variety pollinated with this, the process 
being repeated in each generation, the foreign char- 
acteristics will finally be bred out, and the race will be 
nearly true from seed, although there will still remain 
the commercial disadvantage that half of the seedlings 
will always be males. 

"When such a pure race has been produced, the 
production of seedling dates will have great possibili- 
ties from a practical viewpoint. At present, however, 
with seeds taken from ordinary dates of known 
variety but unknown pedigree, satisfactory commercial 
results can not be expected." 




BAGHDAD DATE GROWER 
At his side is the huge chisel used for detaching offshoots; in his hand the 
sickle for cutting their leaves. 



PROPAGATION BY 
OFFSHOOTS 



CHAPTER IV 

PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 

Ordinarily an offshoot is ready to be detached 
from the parent palm when it weighs from ten to 
twenty pounds; it will then be from two to four years 
of age. Alone of orientals, the Egyptians use much 
larger shoots, s6metimes up to 600 or 800 pounds in 
weight. Perhaps the explanation of this is that the 
large ones are the only ones which stand high enough 
to avoid being drowned out during the annual inun- 
dation of the Nile. If the offshoots are to be shipped 
some distance it will still be advisable to pick those 
of from ten to twenty pounds, or even a little larger, 
as they will not dry out so rapidly, but if they are to 
be grown at home, much smaller ones may be success- 
fully rooted, and with bottom heat, to be described 
later, an offshoot that weighs only a pound or two may 
make as good a growth as the larger ones. Obviously 
one saves a great deal of space by the use of such 
offshoots, as well as gaining several years in the time 
of the offshoot remaining on the tree. 

For shipping, an offshoot with thick, short base 
has certain advantages, its moisture being more 
readily conserved; but if the shoot is to be planted out 
at once, the long slender type is perhaps better, 
since the bud is then higher out of the ground and in 
less danger of damage. 

The shoots from a tree which has had plenty of 
room, a sunny location, and ample nourishment are 
to be preferred on accountof their superior vigor. Arabs 
carefully avoid those from a tree which is crowded in 



60 DATEGROWING 

among others and surrounded by a secondary culture, 
particularly if that be fruit trees, and their dislike to 
offshoots grown under such conditions seems to be 
well founded. 

They also make it a point to choose offshoots 
which have grown from the ground and developed a 
root system of their own, but experiments in California 
indicate that in this case they err. Offshoots which 
have grown on the side of the tree, several feet from 
the ground, and are quite without roots, have given as 
good, and often better, results when planted. If roots 
are formed in the ground by an offshoot when still 
attached to the parent, it seems that they do not 
grow after the shoot is detached, but that an entirely 
new system must be thrown out. 

Most offshoots are bent or curved, but readily 
straighten out when planted. Those which are un- 
usually distorted should be rejected. 

The best time to cut and plant offshoots is a 
matter of dispute. Of course the operation should 
not be carried out in the hottest or coldest weather; 
and if they are to be planted in the open ground, spring 
is certainly the best season. In California May or early 
June are to be chosen. But fall planting gives fairly 
good results in most climates, and in Oman, where 
the winters are mild, it is the rule, as it also is in 
India. If the offshoots are to be rooted with bottom 
heat, fall is a desirable time for work in America, as 
shoots will be rooted during the winter and can be 
set in the ground as soon as it gets warmed through 
in spring, thus having as long a growing season as 
possible. 

To detach offshoots, a specially made tool is 
desirable, in the shape of a large and heavy chisel 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 61 

with a handle two feet long and a blade at least three 
inches wide. It should be kept sharp. A curved blade, 
like that of a big gouge, is an advantage. Any black- 
smith can make one. Those who have large quantities 
of offshoots to handle should have a series of such 
chisels with blades of varying widths from two to four 
inches. A heavy mallet will complete the equipment 
for cutting the offshoots; but a sharp knife or sickle 
must be available to trim off the leaves, and if the 
offshoots are growing from the ground, a shovel and 
mattock will be needed. 

The leaves of the offshoot should first be cut back, 
to make the work easier; then the dirt around its 
base should be removed, if it is in the ground. Two 
men are necessary to remove an offshoot properly; 
one of them bends it down and away from the palm, 
while the other cuts it loose with the chisel. There is 
little danger of cutting too deeply into the palm, but 
there is a good deal of danger of cutting too deeply 
into the offshoot; therefore the chisel should be driven 
well in and the shoot brought out with as long a base 
as possible. An offshoot with a well-formed butt is 
often found to be attached to the parent only by a 
slender ligature; this is not only the easiest kind to 
detach, but the best to grow. 

After the operation, the incision in the parent 
tree should be painted over with tar, white lead or 
something similar, and earth piled back around the 
base, while the offshoot is placed in the shade to dry for 
a few days. The exact length of time will be deter- 
mined by the condition of the ground from which it 
was taken, but there is little danger of getting it too 
dry, while if it is planted when too full of moisture 



6t DATEGROWING 

it is pretty certain to ferment when it is placed in the 
ground. 

As soon as taken from the tree, the base of the 
offshoot should be trimmed up with a chisel, so that 
the cut surface will be clean and smooth, and when dry 
it should be painted over with white lead (thinned 
with linseed oil) or asphaltum roofing paint, or better 
still, a mixture made as follows : 

Take two pounds of linseed oil and two of suet; 
boil them together and stir in three-quarters of a pound 
of red oxide of lead. 

In another vessel boil two pounds of rosin, pow- 
dered, and an equal quantity of ordinary carbonat" of 
soda. When these have been mixed, pour the compound 
into the first vessel, containing the fatty mixtiu-e, and 
stir them thoroughly. A very large pot should be used, 
as the compound boils up rapidly. 

Put the mixture aside to cool; if it is thicker than 
is desired a little denatured alcohol can be stirred into 
it. If it is too thick when wanted for use, because of 
cold weather, warm it slightly. 

Being of an oily or fatty natm-e, it is absolutely 
waterproof, while the rosin makes it dry very rapidly 
without soaking into the fibres of the tree. 

Dead leaf stalks, long roots and loose fibre should 
be cleaned off, and the leaves trimmed back to a 
length of a foot or less, and their cut ends painted 
over to prevent excessive radiation of moisture when 
planted; the shoot is then ready to go into the ground; 
but if it is to be shipped some further precautions are 
necessary. In the first place, the leaf stalks should be 
firmly wired together, to prevent any possible damage 
to the terminal bud. The wire is, of course, removed 
when they are planted. Then the base of the offshoot 
should be dipped in puddled mud and surrounded by 
sphagnum moss or the fibre of the palm itself. The 
whole base of the offshoot is then sewn in a burlap 
jacket, and it is soaked thoroughly. Offshoots are 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 63 

best shipped in open crates, where they will get full 
ventilation; otherwise they will mould on the road; 
they should, of course, be kept away from engines 
and other sources of heat, and protected from rats. 
On a long voyage the moisture should be renewed as 
necessary, either by dipping the bases of the shoots 
in water or, if it cannot be done otherwise, merely 
by turning the stream of a hose through the inter- 
stices of the crate, (the leaf stalks, wired together, will 
keep water from reaching the terminal bud.) The off- 
shoots should be kept slightly moist throughout their 
journey, if possible, but the danger from too much 
moisture is much greater than that from too little. 
The great peril is rotting. Good results have been had, 
when offshoots were brought to California during the 
summer, by letting them finish their journey in an 
iced refrigerator car, at a temperature of 50° to 60° F. 
They arrive firm and fresh, but should be dried out 
carefully. 

Success has been obtained in some instances when 
offshoots were shipped dry, packed merely in straw, 
even on such a long journey as from Algeria to 
California. Nevertheless, this method can not be 
recommended. 

Before the offshoot is planted, it should be dipped 
in a cresol solution (as described in the chapter on 
diseases) to free it from the bacteria of decay. When a 
long shipment is made, it would be better if the off- 
shoot were dipped before it is packed. 

The present requirement in the United States is 
that all offshoots shall be planted in nursery rows for 
the first year, so that the horticultural quarantine 
authorities can keep them easily under control. This 
method has some advantages, economizing space, 



64 DATEGROWING 

water, and labor in cultivation and irrigation. The 
Fardh date growers of Oman, who are the cleverest 
Arab cultivators I have seen, habitually follow the 
same practice. Elsewhere it is the custom to plant 
offshoots in the position which they are permanently 
to occupy. If any quantity of offshoots is to be 
planted I recommend the plantation in nursery rows, 
but where only a few are to be added to an existing 
plantation, or the gaps in the latter to be filled, it will 
be an advantage to put the offshoots in their perma- 
nent locations from the beginning, where quarantine 
restrictions permit one to do so. 

Arabic authorities go into great detail on the 
proper method of planting offshoots. Faqlr Amin al 
Madani advises that a hole a yard square and equally 
deep be dug, and ashes be mixed with a third of the 
dirt removed, which is then put back in the excava- 
tion. The shoot is planted, and one-third more of the 
earth put upon it. After it begins to grow the remain- 
ing earth is added in light layers from time to time. 
In general the Arabs never use manure or other 
fertilizer in planting offshoots, and their practice is 
doubtless correct, unless in special cases where the 
soil is lacking in some element. A common practice is 
to place the base of the palm on a handful of small 
stones: it is thought that this makes the roots spread 
out more widely and draw more nourishment from 
the soil. 

The shoot should be planted to the depth of its 
greatest diameter, or a little deeper in case it is long 
and slender; but the terminal bud must always be 
kept high and dry, for if water gets access to it it will 
be scalded or rot. The bulb of the offshoot should be 
set perpendicularly; if the stem is then leaning, it 




WRAPPING OFFSHOOTS FOR SHIPMENT 
The last stage of packing is to sew the palm in a wrapper of burlap. Pho- 
tograph made at Biskra, Algeria. 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 65 

will soon straighten up when it begins to grow. If 
planted separately the offshoots should have small 
basins dug around them to receive the irrigating water; 
if in rows, a furrow on each side will serve the same 
purpose. The principle to be borne in mind at all 
times is that water must be kept away from the 
terminal bud. 

A new method of planting has been tried at 
Sacaton, Arizona, with success. The offshoots are 
set to the usuaj depth, and then well wrapped with 
burlap, around which earth is piled to make a conical 
mound, nearly to the height of the terminal bud, 
which is protected by the wrapping. Water is then 
given in a basin of ample size at the base. The 
theory underlying this innovation is that the mound of 
dry earth around the stem retains the heat of the 
sun and retards the lowering of temperature of the 
shoot at night. 

If shoots are set out in nursery rows they should 
be three feet apart, at least, and the rows four or five 
feet apart. If in permanent form, I consider that 
thirty-three feet apart each way, or forty to the acre, 
is ample distance; most have been planted in the 
United States fifty to the acre, and the Arabs often 
get one hundred on the same space of ground. Even 
in the best Arab plantations, they are rarely planted 
more than twenty feet apart, but the Arabs recognize, 
in theory at least, that this is a shortsighted policy. 
Faqir Amin says, " It is bad for each palm to be planted 
less than ten meters (about thirty -three feet) from the 
other, and it has been proved that palms closer than 
this yield only a small amount, and if you have fifty 
palms and plant them far apart and one hundred 
palms and plant them closer, the fifty will yield more 



66 DATEGROWING 

than the one hundred." In cases where it is desired 
to grow a secondary crop permanently, the palms may 
advantageously be set still farther apart — for alfalfa, 
twenty-six to the acre might not be too few. 

The ground should be thoroughly soaked several 
times in succession before the shoots are planted, 
and after that it must be kept constantly and evenly 
moist. This irrigation of offshoots is, indeed, probably 
the most delicate and laborious part of the whole 
culture of the date, and on the unremitting care given 
to it all future success depends. The rootlets of the 
offshoots are extraordinarily delicate, and if they 
are allowed to dry out even once during the hot sum- 
mer, heavy loss will result. Their delicacy also makes 
it essential to avoid giving the offshoot any shock 
which may break them, either by plow or animal 
when cultivating, or by shaking the top of the palm 
to see whether it is sound, as anxious growers some- 
times do. 

No general rule can be laid down for watering, as 
it depends entirely on the nature of the soil. While 
it should be kept moist, it must not be kept so satur- 
ated as to prevent the air from getting in. In the 
heavy clay of Baghdad one watering a week is enough; 
in the light sand of some parts of the Sahara the 
shoot is watered daily for the first forty days, after 
which the supply is very slowly tapered off. In 
Coachella Valley every other day or every third day 
will ordinarily suffice; sometimes it works well to 
water for two successive days and give none on the 
third. The soil must be kept in a good state of 
cultivation. 

It is customary to give the shoots some shade 
during the summer, by tying old palm leaves, corn 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 67 

stalks or something of that nature around them, but it 
is doubtful whether this is necessary. In winter, 
however, they must have some protection in a climate 
where any frost is to be expected, as the young and 
growing offshoot is naturally far more tender than the 
adult palm. Probably the best and simplest shelter is 
made by tying a piece of burlap or gunny-sacking 
loosely around it. 

Signs of growth will frequently be shown in two 
or three months ' and, if the shoots are planted in 
spring, half of them should give evidence of vitality 
before fall; most of the rest will come into growth 
during the following spring or summer. Sometimes 
an offshoot will remain entirely lifeless for a year and 
a half, and then start vigorous growth. There is 
always a small loss, even with the most carefully 
selected and handled shoots, but it should not exceed 
five or ten per cent. If it is more than this the 
blame is usually due to the cultivator and not to the 
offshoots. Stands as high as ninety -eight per cent, 
have been secured with imported offshoots in Cali- 
fornia; on the other hand, some plantations have been 
practically wiped out as the result of a little neglect 
on the part of their owners. The Arab gets similar 
results, according to the care he uses, but as he is 
usually negligent he does not ordinarily get more 
than sixty to eighty per cent, stand. 

If properly cared for, most varieties will produce 
the first blossom in two or three years. Varieties 
differ : Khadhrawi is one of the earliest, and ordinarily 
produces its first fruit in three years, even under 
Arab management, while Awaydi seems, with the 
best of care, unable to give results before eight or ten 



68 DATE GROWING 

years. In any event, it is a great mistake to let a 
palm bear fruit too early. 

Offshoots are frequently found which have small 
offshoots upon them, and there is no reason for 
detaching these and destroying them, unless one cares 
solely for fruit. In the United States, the production 
of offshoots from the best varieties promises to be 
fully as remunerative in the immediate future, as 
the production of fruit. It is not possible to get a 
maximum production of both from the same palm, 
but most growers will doubtless prefer to keep the 
fruit yield to a reasonable limit by cutting off surplus 
blossoms, in order that they may secure as many 
offshoots as possible. Offshoots may yield a few 
offshoots, in their turn, at three or four years from 
planting, and at from five to fifteen or twenty years of 
age they should yield at least two a year, although 
varieties differ in offshoot production. From an 
eight year old Birket al Hajji palm at Tempe, Ariz., 
fifty-three were taken at one cutting. 

The Arabs long ago discovered that if all the 
offshoots were taken from a palm it would produce 
no more, and this fact has been confirmed in the 
United States. It is necessary, then, to leave one or 
more offshoots on the tree at all times, so that it may 
continue to produce, and if this is done, and ample 
irrigation and fertilization given, the palm may 
continue to produce offshoots much longer than is 
supposed — even to the age of thirty or forty years. 
In a damp climate it seems to yield more. On the 
coast of Southern California, where fruit does not 
mature, the palm yields offshoots much more abun- 
dantly than it does in the hot interior valleys, but this 
is doubtless due, in part at least, to the very fact that 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 69 

the fruit can not ripen, and therefore the palm is 
allowed to devote its whole energy to reproduction 
through suckers. 

If it is desired to get as many offshoots as possible, 
the grower should keep the leaves on all of them cut 
well back while they are still on the parent palm. 
The energy thus saved to the tree will be used to grow 
more offshoots. 

So far the discussion of offshoots has assumed 
that they are to be grown in the open ground, but 
experiments made in California have shown that the 
application of bottom heat will give higher percentages 
of success and much quicker results, saving from three 
to six months in the time necessary to root an off- 
shoot. The method may never be practicable for 
handling a large shipment of offshoots, but for ordinary 
purposes it seems likely to supplant outdoor 
propagation altogether. 

Credit for the development of this method is due 
to Bruce Drummond, in charge of the IT. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture Experiment Station at Indio, 
Cal. It has only been tried for one season, but the 
results have been almost perfect. 

Offshoots are set closely together, either in a bed 
of ordinary sandy loam or in pots of the same material, 
over a coil of pipes carrying hot water, in such a way 
that the soil around the roots is kept at a temperature 
of from 100° to 110° F. The difference will be realized 
when it is known that the soil temperature in Coachella 
Valley rarely exceeds 80° or 85°, and that up to the 
middle of May it does not rise above 55°. The heat is 
kept constant night and day, moisture abundantly 
supplied, and within a month or two the offshoots 
usually begin to grow; roots seven inches long were 



70 DATEGROWING 

found on one after only five weeks in the bed. When 
the rooting is once started, it is jjrobable that the 
temperature could be increased even to 150 F., and 
the growth forced still more rapidly. As soon as they 
are well rooted they can be transferred to the open 
ground; and it is likely that four batches a year could 
be run through the plant in this manner. The smallest 
offshoots can be handled successfully; one of seven 
ounces has succeeded, and small size would be par- 
ticularly desirable because of the greater economy 
in pots. It has been found in actual practice that a 
small offshoot produces fruit as soon as a large one 
does, in most instances. 

Mr. Drummond operates in a greenhouse with 
glass roof, but considers this a disadvantage rather 
than an advantage, as it keeps the top temperature 
too high, and tends to stimulate leaf growth at the 
expense of root growth. The plant could best be 
established in a well lighted building which could be 
easily opened. to a free circulation of air when desired; 
a canvas house, or a lath house with the laths set 
rather closely together, would do well. Such a plant 
is in reach of almost any cultivator, for a second-hand 
boiler and pipe are quite sufficient to carry hot water. 
It can be very cheaply operated, particularly in hot 
weather, when the amount of fuel needed is 
ridiculously small. 

The discussion of offshoots may well be closed 
with a reference to the means of identifying them — 
a question which always interests one who buys 
offshoots from a foreign country, but also has its 
practical value to the grower in handling the offshoots 
of his own palms. The offshoots of all varieties differ 
from each other, and in some cases the characteristics 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 71 

are so marked that they can be distinguished at a 
glance by anyone. The color and texture of the 
leaflets and the angle at which they are set on the 
midrib; the length, thickness, number and arrange- 
ment of the spines; the color of the midrib; and the 
amount and arrangement of the fibre among the 
stems, are the principal guides, and these points should 
all be noticed by one who wishes to fix the identity 
of an offshoot.* There is no reason why the ordi- 
nary grower should not learn the characteristics of 
the offshoots of all his palms, unless he has an 
unusually large number of varieties on his plantation, 
and he will thus be enabled, in handling offshoots, to 
avoid any confusion: although it is also desirable to 
fix a permanent metal label to them as they are cut 
from the parent tree. 

One who buys offshoots among the Arabs 
follows the same method, but if the off shoots are new 
to him he must at first depend on Arabs for the 
identification. The safest way, of course, is to see the 
trees in fruit, and determine the characteristics of the 
offshoot (and the palm itself as well) at that time. 
But in practice he is not likely to be deceived, if he 
conscientiously attends to his work, for he can usually 
tell a strange offshoot in a bunch which is supposed to 
consist of one variety, even though he may not be 
able to give the name of the stranger — a Tafazwin, 
for instance, in a row of Deglet Nur offshoots, sticks 
out like a sore thumb. 

If the buyer of offshoots in an Arab country 
employs as his field agent an Arab recommended to 
him by some responsible European, if he conscien- 

*Prof. S. C. Mason of the Bureau of Plant Industry has worked 
out a complete system for identifying adult palms in this way. 



72 DATEGROWING 

tiously watches the offshoots as they are brought in, 
and if he calls a council of his Arab visitors from time 
to time and asks them to name the offshoots they see 
in his packing yard, he has little chance of being 
defrauded. As for the substitution of male for 
female shoots, a trick that was practiced upon the 
United States government in some of its first importa- 
tions, it is hardly possible in the present state of 
knowledge, and is explainable only by the fact that 
these importations were secured at second hand, 
through consuls and others who had no idea of what 
a date palm was. The male offshoot, by its vigorous 
growth and sturdy aspect, and its larger number of 
closely packed leaves, is almost always distinguishable 
even to the beginner. 

Seedling palms have also been sold as offshoots 
on some occasions, but it is hardly conceivable that 
a careful buyer could be fooled in this way, for 
such a buyer inspects personally the base of every 
offshoot as it is brought before him, throwing out all 
those in which symptoms of decay appear; and he can 
see at a glance whether the plant has been cut from a 
tree or grown in the ground from a seed. I have never 
met an Arab who tried to foist such a thing on me, 
and I doubt if they would try it, unless they found a 
man packing offshoots without any inspection. The 
natives of India appear to be unusually clever at 
such trickery. Milne says:* 

"Fraudulent people often cut a piece off the lower 
end of a seedling to make it appear like an offshoot. 
A seedling plant usually has a straight stem, however, 
while that of an offshoot usually has a slight bend at 

*Milne, D. "Date Cultivation in the Panjab," p. 11. Lahore, 
1911. 




TRIMMING OFFSHOOT BASES 
All inequalities should be removed froni the cut surface of the butt before 
it is painted and packed. 



PROPAGATION BY OFFSHOOTS 73 

its base where it curved inwards to join the parent 
stem. The direction of the cut with regard to the 
main axis of the plant and the angle at which it cuts 
the sap-conducting vessels of the wood also usually 
differ in the two cases. In the case of an offshoot the 
cut is made roughly in the plane of the main axis 
of the plant, and owing to the base of its stem bending 
toward the mother the cut will also be more or less 
at right angles to the direction of the vessels at that 
point. In the seefdling if the cut is made at right 
angles to the direction of the vessels, it will be at 
right angles to the main axis of the plant, and if it is 
cut in a plane anywhere approaching that of the main 
axis of the plant it will not be in the proper direction 
with regard to the vessels, and the cut end will 
probably show a more or less distinctive outline." 

From what has been said it will be evident that 
the careful buyer need be in little fear that he will be 
swindled; nor is the problem of packing and shipping 
offshoots a serious one. It calls principally for 
unremitting attention. The actual danger begins 
after the offshoot is in the ground, but here again it 
is not one that need alarm any except the ignorant or 
negligent grower, and if offshoots are rooted indoors, 
by the application of artificial heat to the soil, the 
period of anxiety will be much shortened and the 
percentage of success still further increased. 



PROPAGATION BY SEED 



CHAPTER V 
PROPAGATION BY SEED 

There is no detail of date growing in which the 
medieval Arab authors give such play to their 
imagination as in the handling of seedlings, and this 
fact strongly indicates that the growth of palms from 
seed was more a theory than a practice — that seeds 
were not really planted often enough to check up 
and explode the fantastic ideas of the writers. In 
modern literature the seed is absolutely ignored as a 
means of propagation — such authorities as Faqir 
Amin al Madani do not even allude to it, the offshoot 
being considered the only means of propagating the 
palm commercially. When a seedling palm is found 
in an Arab's plantation, one may be sure that it 
merely grew by accident. 

Ibn Aw4m* thinks success depends on planting 
the seed horizontally, not vertically, and covering it 
with soil mixed with manure and salt. He mentions 
with evident scepticism the declaration of Ibn Hajjajf 
that he had grown seeds in soil without salt, and 
declares that all other authorities unanimously 

*The Book of Agriculture by Shaykh al Fadhl Abu Zaharia 
Yahi4 b. Muhammad b. Ahmad Ibn al Aw4m Ashbili (i. e., a native 
of Seville, Spain) is one of the fullest and most interesting of medieval 
treatises on horticulture. It seems to have been written in the 
twelfth century, A. D. It was first published in 1802 by the royal 
library of San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain, from a MS. in its possession, 
with a rather loose translation by Don Josef Banqueri, prior of the 
cathedral of Tortosa; and again at Paris in 1864, from a more perfect 
MS. in the BibUotheque Nationale, with a translation by J. J. 
Clement-Mullet. The first edition is in two vols., the latter in three. 

tAbti Umar ibn Hajj&j wrote Al Mukna, a treatise on agriculture, 
in 1073 A. D. 



78 DATEGROWING 

contradict him; whereas we now know that a very 
small amount of salt is sufl&cient to kill seedlings, for 
they are far less resistant to it than adult palms. Ibn 
A warn indeed quotes* the exact proportion for the 
purpose: four pounds of common salt to each two 
baskets of mingled earth and human excrement — the 
basket being the "qafiz" of Cordova. f Mahrarius, 
again quoted by him, thinks the important thing is to 
soak the seed for five days in water, and then plant it 
with the ventral channel downward, both of which 
ideas are fairly sensible. Saghrit holds that failure is 
due to the temperament of the planter. "Beware," 
he says, "that the planting is not done by a mean 
person, or one with a bad mouth and melancholy 
humor. He should have an aspect of happiness and 
joy." Other writers inform us that it is of no use for 
the planter to simulate joy if he does not really feel it 
— the seed will see through such a hollow mockery at 
once, and refuse to germinate. The phase of the moon 
is also an important factor, but as the authorities are 
far from agreeing as to the proper phase I need not 
quote them. If the germ-pore is planted downward, 
it is considered that the palm will be a male. I do 
not advise anyone to base his faith in seedling dates 
on this idea, or on the similar one that if the seeds are 
dipped in boiling water before planting, a larger 
percentage of them will be female. 

QastusJ says the seed should be soaked in water 

*From Abu Abdullah Muhammad b. Ibrahim ibn al Fadhl, 
an Andalusian Moor whose treatise on agriculture has been lost. It 
was written in the eleventh century. 

fl suspect Ibn Awdm has made a mistake here. The ordinary 
qafiz is a mule load, while the qafiz of Cordova is only forty-two mudd 
or double handfuls, and two pounds of salt in this quantity of earth 
would kill any seed. 

JQasttis b. Ltiqa al Riimi, The Book of Greek Agriculture, eh. 75. 



PROPAGATION BY SEED 79 

for two days, then cut in halves lengthwise and the 
two halves buried side by side in the earth with the 
cut surface downward and in complete contact with 
the earth, the apex pointing toward the east. Pliny* 
believed that two seeds should be planted side by side 
and two more similarly placed on top of them, "for 
when planted singly, the tree that springs up is but 
weak and sickly, whereas the four seeds all unite to 
form one strong tree," The writers realized that the 
seeds did not rep;roduce the characteristics of the 
parent, but Ibn Awam declares that if the seeds of 
these seedlings are again planted, they will return to 
the exact characteristics of the original parent — 
certainly a wonderful case of atavism. 

Abd al Ghanit lays great stress on planting the 
seed two cubits deep, with manure, salt, and wine 
lees, and plenty of irrigation; "especially if the water 
remain on it at night will it become fat and hasten to 
grow and laugh with delight over its food, and its face 
will be wreathed in smiles. It should be protected with 
care from all ill treatment and watched over with 
anxious solicitude, being properly protected during 
hot weather; it should also be thoroughly cultivated, 
as it can not grow well if other plants are growing 
around its roots. If these rules are observed, the 
palm will grow beautifully, for what it most wants is 
earth and manure and salt on it and water at proper 
intervals." 

The ancients usually advise that the seeds should 
be planted where the palm is to stand permanently. 

*Caius Plinius Secundus, llistoria Naturalis, Book XIII, ch. 7. 
Rome, 77 A. D. 

tShaykh Abd al Ghani al Nabll, The Book of the Use of Salt in 
the Science of Agriculture (MS. in my posses-sion — no date). 



80 DATEGROWING 

It appears that there are niceties about transplanting, 
too, for the Book of Nabathean Agriculture* says 
success in this operation will only be attained if the 
grower has a lymphatic and lunar temperament, and 
his body is in normal condition, and even under these 
circumstances the transplanting would be an absolute 
failure should it be attempted on the second day of the 
lunar month. "In transplanting he should be gay 
and joyous, without constraint, his face wreathed in 
smiles; it is a thing which we have proved by expe- 
rience and can recommend as being well-founded," 
says the author. 

But let us leave the dark ages and get down to 
actual facts. 

The modern grower who desires to propagate by 
seed will first of all select his seed, if it is possible to do 
so. The percentage of palms which come true will 
depend on the extent to which pollination in previous 
generations has been made by a male of the same 
variety as the parent. In the case of most commercial 
dates it is impossible to say what the male parent was, 
but there are some cases in which the chance is greater 
than others. Most Algerian dates, including Deglet 
Nur from that region, are likely to have been pollinated 
by a male which grew from a dry-date seed, since the 
latter class of dates is commonly eaten by the natives, 
who throw the seeds around, where one may strike 

*The Book of Nabathean Agriculture is one of the most famous 
productions of the dark ages, in this field, and has long been a fertile 
subject for dispute among students. It purports to have been written 
in Chaldean by oue Quthdmi, and to have been translated into Arabic 
by lbnu-1 Wahshiyyeh in 904 A. D., but scholars now consider it 
to be a forgery of which Wahshiyyeh was the actual author, rather 
than the translator. The MS. (No. 175) in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
of Algiers, however, bears the introductory statement that it was 
translated from Chaldean into Arabic by Abti Bakr Ahmad b. AH 
b. Qars al Kusd4ni al Qaisi in the year 291, i. e., 903 A. D. 



PROPAGATION BY SEED 81 

root and grow. Therefore seed of Algerian Deglet 
Nurs can not be expected to produce particularly 
favorable results. 

The Majhtil date of Tafilalet, on the other hand, 
seems to give a better average of results, and this is 
probably because it and varieties similar to it pre- 
ponderate in certain oases, so that the race has been 
unknowingly kept purer than usual. The same thing 
has taken place in the case of Deglet Nlir in some of 
the oases of Southern Tunisia. 

Fardh has given good results as a seedling. It is 
grown only in one valley, where two-thirds of the 
trees are of that variety; therefore there is an excellent 
chance that the male may have been a Fardh seedling. 

Asharasi should give fairly good results, since the 
most valued male in the districts where it is grown 
is itself a seedling Asharasi. 

But better still, one may secure from the Bureau 
of Plant Industry seeds of Deglet Nur which have been 
inbred, so the probability of their coming true to seed 
is notably better than those of the ordinary Deglet 
Nur of commerce. As the breeding process goes on, 
better seeds will be obtainable every few years, 
although it will be a quarter of a century before any 
quantity of seeds of an approximately pure race can 
be obtained. 

Having secured his seed the grower will sort it, 
throwing out small ones, and then soak it in water for 
a week, in order to hasten germination. The easiest 
way to do this is to place the seeds in a sack or per- 
forated can and leave it in an irrigating ditch. They 
may then be planted in any ordinary soil. Spring is, 



82 DATEGROWING 

of course, the proper time unless one expects to work 
under glass and with artificial heat. 

The soil used for the purpose must not contain 
enough alkali to injure ordinary crops, and it will be 
best if it is nearly pure. California growers should 
select a clean, sandy loam, such as is available in 
many parts of the desert. Several methods of starting 
the seed have been found successful, and the one to be 
selected will depend on the grower's own desire. 

Flats or shallow boxes offer a convenient method 
of beginning, and are particularly desirable if the 
grower has been a little slow in getting his permanent 
location ready. They may . be transported easily 
from place to place, and save a great deal of time, 
labor, and water in handling the seeds during the first 
part of their plant life. The seeds should be planted 
an inch or two deep and three or four inches apart, 
and the soil kept constantly moist. 

Contrary to Arab ideas, it really makes not the 
slightest difference in what position the seed is 
planted. If a hole is punched in the soil with the end of 
a broomstick, and the seed dropped in, it may be 
covered up without further thought. 

Most American growers, however, have planted 
their seeds in rows in the open field. Some have even 
planted in the locations where the palm will stand 
permanently — that is twenty-five or thirty feet apart; 
but this requires an amount of labor and water that 
the ordinary grower will feel to be wasted. On the other 
hand, too close planting is to be avoided, as the 
palms then take longer to come into flower, and one 
does not wish to care for a lot of worthless males 
any longer than necessary. 

From this point of view, the best planting is 



PROPAGATION BY SEED 83 

probably in rows seven or eight feet apart, and three 
or four feet apart in the row. No fertilizer is necessary 
unless in exceptional cases,* but irrigation and cultiva- 
tion should not be stinted. With such treatment, palms 
have been known to bloom as early as one year — 
only one rudimentary blossom, of course, but it 
sufficed to determine the sex. Frequently they bloom 
in two years, and should usually do so in three, with 
the rest of the palms coming into flower in the fourth 
or fifth year: but it must be understood that this 
record is obtainable only with the best of care, and 
when the palms are not too crowded in the rows. 
Under ordinary circumstances, and with most seedling 
plantations, five to eight years have been required to 
determine the sex of the palm. 

As soon as the sex has been shown by a flower 
the males can be dug out and the females trans- 
planted to their permanent positions. To effect this 
removal without the loss that has sometimes accom- 
panied it, the palms should be given no irrigation for 
three weeks before transplanting. When taken out of 
the ground the leaves should be cut back; then if 
they are put in the orchard and given plenty of 
cultivation and irrigation they will continue to grow 
without any check; while if they are taken from 
moist rows and transplanted, those that do not die 
often suspend growth for from three to six months. 
The same precaution should be observed in trans- 
planting seedlings from flats, and in transplanting 
offshoots from the hot bed or nursery row to their 
field location. 

If the seedling palms are to be maintained as a 

*A little lime sometimes seems to improve the soils of Coachella 
Valley, but it should be used sparingly and with discretion. 



84 DATEGROWING 

windbreak, they may be sown in the proper line, 
five or six feet apart, and left there permanently, for 
there will be no need of removing the males in this 
case. 

The percentage of males varies around one-half. 
James P. Read, of Mecca, found that sixty per cent of 
his Deglet Nur seedlings were males. The Majhul 
seeds have given a surprisingly high percentage of 
females, but as the number reported on so far has 
not been large, this may be merely a coincidence 
which further plantings will destroy. The grower 
must, in general, expect that something less than half 
of his palms will be females. 

The grower will naturally wish to save a certain 
number of male palms for his own use; if they are 
seedlings, he should have five or six to each hundred 
females. The easiest and surest way to insure an 
abundance of pollen is to plant a windbreak, as 
described, and let all the males in it grow; in the 
number there is certain to be one or more that will 
give satisfaction. If the planter wishes to save only 
a few males, he should select such as seem to flower 
most profusely; but he can never be certain of good 
results, for seedling males are no more reHable than 
seedling females, and I am confident that most of 
the males in use in the future, in an intelligent date 
growing community, will be propagated by offshoots 
from a father of known value. 

Having satisfactorily disposed of his surplus 
males, the seedling grower will then consider his 
females, and will probably plant them all in orchard 
form at first, leaving the elimination of worthless 
ones until they bear enough fruit to give a fair test 
of their character. This is the more desirable 



PROPAGATION BY SEED 86 

because a palm grown from seed sometimes bears 
bad fruit during the first few years and afterwards 
improves in quality — a characteristic that applies 
also to a few varieties of offshoot-propagated palms, 
and particularly to Manakhir in the United States. 
As rapidly as he decides that a palm has no merit, he 
will throw it out and put in its place an offshoot from 
one of his better females; and this process he will 
have to continue indefinitely, if he wishes ever to get 
a really valuable commercial plantation. So when the 
seedling grower finally gets a good grove of palms, 
he will have to admit that it is not really a seedling 
grove, but preponderatingly an offshoot grove. 

It is difficult to quote any figures as to the 
percentage of good seedlings in one hundred female 
trees, for the number will vary according to condi- 
tions, and no figures quoted are safe from attack by 
someone who can show that in his own experience they 
are inaccurate. Most students* consider that one- 
tenth of the females will bear fairly good fruit and 
another tenth passable fruit: that is, from one 
hundred seeds (including males) one would get ten 
females which would produce eatable dates. In 
favored localities the number would be a little higher, 
but the commercial disadvantage always remains that 
even the good dates are too varied to be graded and 
packed as a uniform product, and therefore can not 
command the top market price. For home use, 
where it makes no difference whether the dates are 
uniform or not, seedling fruit may be quite as good 
as that grown from offshoots. 

There remains always the attractive possibility 
that the seedling grower will draw a capital prize — 

*e. g.. Swingle and Milne. 



86 DATEGROWING 

that he will produce a palm a little better than any- 
thing else. The chance is too good to neglect, and 
every date grower should have as many seedlings 
as he can care for without detriment to his profits, 
hut a slight consideration will show that the chance is, 
arithmetically, not very great. It is true that all 
the varieties in the world have been produced from 
seeds, but the small number of high grade varieties, 
which is most noticeable in the very districts where 
propagation is by seed instead of offshoots, shows 
that such an occurrence is rare. It is only once in a 
century that a Deglet Nur, a Khalaseh, a Tabirzal, or 
a Birket al Hajji appears; and although some choice 
seedlings have already been produced in the south- 
western United States, an honest examination of them 
will show that they are no better than, aud in most 
cases inferior to, good varieties which we have already 
imported from the Arab world. 

The greatest opportunity of the seedling grower 
lies in the rapid production and propagation of 
offshoots. If from a thousand palms he gets a few 
that are of good quality and reasonably uniform, he 
can, after they have proved their value by one good 
crop, force them to devote their whole energy to the 
production of offshoots, which he will remove while 
still small, and root with bottom heat. These in turn 
will produce offshoots in four or five years, and the 
multiplication of the variety, or the similar varieties, 
will then go forward with some speed. Such work 
offers a legitimate field, but it is of necessity one that 
will attract the nurseryman more than the grower 
whose aim is to acquire, as soon as possible, a plant- 
ation of dates that will yield him a steady income. 



CULTURE OF THE PALM 



CHAPTER VI 
CULTURE OF THE PALM 

Irrigation is the principal item in the culture 
of the date palm. For Arabs it is practically the only 
item, for in most gardens the palms get no cultivation 
whatever, unless incidentally through the presence of 
a secondary crop', or, once in a year or two, when a 
little manure is worked around the roots. It is there- 
fore irrigation that the scientific date planter must 
first of all consider, and to which he must constantly 
give his attention. 

I have already mentioned that a water supply of 
one miner's inch to the acre is desirable except on 
land which holds water particularly well, but there is 
some difference of opinion as to the way in which this 
should be applied, and every grower will have to 
decide for himself by watching the condition of the 
ground. One plantation, on very sandy soil in 
Coachella Valley, gets twenty-four hours of irrigation 
twice a week and thrives on it; another, in loam, gets 
water only once in eight or ten days and seems to 
be in equally good condition. As most date growing 
countries are characterized by a relative scarcity of 
water, the grower may naturally like to give more than 
is necessary, but I may say at the outset that it is 
easy to give too little, but almost impossible to give 
too much. It has already been mentioned that the 
plantations of Busreh are irrigated every twelve 
hours. The experimental garden at Tempe, Ariz., 
is in a locality where the level of the ground water 
is near the surface, and often above, but the palms 



90 DATEGROWING 

have never given any signs of a surfeit in their growth, 
although excess of water has a very bad effect on the 
crop itself. 

On the other hand, cultivation will take the place 
of irrigation to some extent, by keeping the water 
in the soil after it is once put there. The Arab 
neglects this because of his indolence, but the scientific 
grower can not afford to do so. As with irrigation, 
there is no danger of giving too much cultivation, 
but there is danger of giving too little. 

It is impossible to give advice that will fit all 
conditions, but I believe that on ordinarily good soil 
a thorough irrigation once a week, followed by 
cultivation as soon as the ground is dry enough to 
work, would be ideal throughout the summer. In 
lighter soil, unless the subsoil be of such a nature as 
to retain water well, I would certainly irrigate oftener. 
In winter the interval can be lengthened, particularly 
as most palms lie nearly dormant for some time, and 
advantage can often be taken of timely rains. It 
has sometimes been advised that irrigation should 
be suspended during the winter because it would tend 
to make the palms more sensitive to frost, but obser- 
vations in California following the cold weather of 
January, 1913, indicate that this theory has little 
importance in practice. If irrigated well in late 
winter, palms will flower earlier, and thus fruit earlier 
— an advantage well worth gaining. 

Americans usually suspend irrigation for a few 
weeks while palms are being pollinated, on the ground 
that a better stand of fruit will be secured, because 
moisture will cause the blossoms to drop before they 
set. In theory this seems plausible, but in practice 
it will be found that most Arab growers do not observe 



CULTURE OF THE PALM 91 

it, and they suffer no inconvenience. At Baghdad 
the period of flowering is frequently the period of 
inundation from the Tigris, when plantations are 
submerged to the depth of a foot or two for several 
weeks; and the growers nevertheless get a heavy 
crop of fruit. It may be a safe precaution to omit 
one irrigation immediately after the female has been 
impregnated, but in a dry climate and porous soil 
I doubt if it has any advantage. 

It has also been advised to suspend irrigation 
when the dates are nearly ripe, in order to keep them 
from becoming soft and sticky. This again sounds 
reasonable, and for some varieties is desirable, but 
other varieties demand an increase rather than a 
decrease of water at this period. In Coachella Valley, 
for instance, Deglet Niir dates show a tendency to 
shrivel or mummify toward the end of their ripening 
on the tree, just at the time when they should be 
filling with honey. The climate appears really to be 
too dry for them. This tendency, which has sometimes 
caused serious loss, can be checked by giving copious 
irrigation right up to the time the dates are taken 
from the tree. With varieties which are likely to be 
unpleasantly soft, irrigation at the last might well 
be withheld. The character of the soil must also be 
taken into consideration. In short, the grower's 
own judgment and experience are essential to decide 
on this point, but in general it offers little trouble, 
and is not of importance. 

It will be seen, then, that irrigation and cultiva- 
tion offer no puzzling problems. The grower who gives 
his palms plenty of both will have little need to worry 
about details. 

Nor does the fertilization of the land present 



92 DATEGROWING 

many questions; or if it does, the present state of our 
knowledge is not suflBciently advanced to permit us 
to know it. The future may hold some important 
discoveries, but at present both theory and practice 
may almost be summed up in two words, — "stable 
manure." This is because the soil in most date grow- 
ing regions is more deficient in humus than in any- 
thing else, and because chemical fertilizers are so quick- 
ly washed out of the land by the constant irrigation 
that they hardly have a chance to return interest on 
the investment their cost represents. 

The Fardh growers of Oman are again most 
advanced among Arabs in this respect, for they work 
into the soil a donkey load per tree of well-rotted 
manure and straw twice a year. In other oriental com- 
munities once a year is considered liberal, and at Busreh 
once in two years is the rule, and even then the in- 
gredient is the coarsest kind of straw and reeds, 
animals being scarce. The general practice is to apply 
manure at the beginning of winter, so that it has a 
chance to rot thoroughly and become incorporated 
with the soil before the growing period in spring; but 
if it is well rotted before it is applied, early spring 
would probably be better, as there would be less loss 
from leaching. It should be well worked into the soil. 

If a grower knows that his soil is lacking in any 
particular element, he should of course supply the 
deficiency, as he would with any other crop. Other- 
wise he may as well depend on stable manure, or some 
other form of humus. The leaf mould found under 
mesquite bushes in the southwestern United States 
is excellent, and far too valuable to be wasted by 
burning, as is often done when a new piece of land is 
cleared. So far as I know, inoculation of the soil with 



CULTURE OF THE PALM 93 

bacteria, to increase the nitrogen supply, has never 
been tried with this culture, but it would be well 
worth trying. If a secondary crop is to be grown, 
alfalfa or some leguminous plant should be given the 
preference for this same reason. 

When a subsidiary crop is grown between the 
rows, the nutrition which it takes from the soil must 
be replaced unless the palms are to suffer. Ordinarily 
it will be sufficient to plow the crop under after it 
has yielded its produce. 

The Arabs have some excessively fastidious ideas 
about fertilizers, which can not be accepted until they 
have been scientifically tested. Camel manure is 
looked on in Algeria with disfavor, as being "too hot." 
That of mules and donkeys is given the preference, 
but that of cows and horses is also considered good. 
Ibn Awam says that the excrement of pigs burns the 
roots of the palm; he also suggests that the roots 
should be irrigated with date syrup in order to make 
the fruit sweet! Wine lees are in high repute among 
the old masters, as a fertilizer. Faqir Amin al Madani 
is, as usual, original in his remarks: 

"And you must fertilize the palm, for that is the 
best thing to increase its yield. Cow manure or that 
of camels is best, spread under it in winter, but any 
good manure, well rotted, will prove efficacious if 
applied in winter. But an easier method to make it 
more verdant is, in the summer days, to gather all 
the fallen fruit and that bruised by feet or spoiled by 
the birds, and to put a little water on it and let it 
rot and save it for winter; then pour on each palm 
a portion of three pounds of this liquor, and in this 
manner there will be no expense to you, because the 
fallen fruit would have been a loss to you in any case." 



94 DATEGROWING 

All the medieval writers consider that the palm 
should be irrigated occasionally with brine. There is 
no evidence, however, to show that it benefits from 
such treatment. 

Many of the talismans and charms by which the 
growers of antiquity professed to influence the palm 
are nothing more than a crude sort of fertilization. 
Ibn Awam, for instance, says, "There is a prodigious 
secret of marvelous virtue, which is to take fourteen 
pounds of the aromatic rush of Babylon, dig a hole 
in the ground and bury it; after twenty-one days dig 
it up and spread it on the trees" (to increase their 
yield.) " It must be done in the sign of Taurus or of 
Cancer; I myself have tried it with notable success." 
Obviously this is nothing more than adding a little 
humus to the soil. Again he says, " If your trees bear 
intermittently, dig a trench around them at two cubits 
distance and put palm leaves and branches in it; 
wet them five times at intervals of five or six days, 
after which-, if it be the will of God, the tree will bear." 

This intermittent bearing of the palm is a factor 
with which every grower must reckon. In light sandy 
soil, lacking in humus, it is almost impossible to get a 
palm to bear a uniformly heavy crop each year; 
old palms always show a tendency to rest every other 
year; while young ones in full vigor will require an 
entire season to recuperate if they are allowed to 
bear too heavily. A grower who gets a new palm into 
bearing, particularly if it be of a valuable variety, 
naturally wants as much fruit as possible, so he lets 
it bear a maximum crop, with the result that he has 
nothing at all the following season. The palm must 
be brought into bearing gradually: one bunch the 
first year, two or three the second, three or four the 



CULTURE OF THE PALM 95 

third, and so on. Even after it reaches maturity it 
should ordinarily not be allowed to carry more than 
half of the clusters which it throws out. Of course, if 
the variety is naturally a shy bearer, and sends forth 
but a few racemes, it will not be necessary to remove 
any, but where twenty or twenty-five are put out, as 
is sometimes the case, ten or twelve are enough to 
leave. It is hardly necessary to point out that if a 
palm is carrying offshoots it must carry fewer dates. 
In the case of a valuable variety, from which it is 
desired to get as many offshoots as possible, it will 
often be well to let it bear only one or two bunches of 
fruit each season; the value of the offshoots will 
more than compensate for the dates lost. On the 
other hand, a second-grade tree which there is no 
reason to perpetuate should be stripped of offshoots 
altogether; it w411 then be able to put every ounce of 
its energy into the production of dates. Unless you 
have had enough experience to be certain of your 
success, leave a fairly large number of clusters until 
after you have pollinated and have had a chance to 
observe the results; some clusters usually set less 
dates than others and these can be removed, leaving 
only first-class clusters on the tree. 

If the number of clusters borne each year is kept 
to a reasonable limit, and the palm given abundant 
irrigation, cultivation, and fertihzation, no one need 
fear this intermittent bearing or alternation of years. 
It has been thoroughly proved in California that 
good care is the only thing needed to make the palm 
perform satisfactorily each season. 

As dates are ordinarily grown in a semi-arid 
climate, there is httle trouble from the weather. An 
unexpected rain in early summer will do little harm; 



96 DATEGROWING 

if it comes when the dates are ripening it may make 
trouble, but experience in Coachella Valley last year, 
when a September storm brought a precipitation of 
one and one-half inches, proved that most of the 
fears which have been entertained on this score are 
groundless — the total loss to the crop probably did 
not exceed five per cent. Of course, if rain should be 
followed by a period of moist days it would be more 
serious. This rarely occurs in a desert country; 
should it do so when the dates were ripening, the only 
recourse would be to pick the crop at once and finish 
its ripening artificially by the quick process. For 
this reason, every grower should have the means of 
carrying out this process. 

Sometimes fruit falls prematurely from the palm 
as a result of bad weather; at other times it falls 
with no apparent reason. The trouble seems to be 
a question of variety, and few of the good varieties 
annoy one in this way. If they do, and you are 
enlightened, you will hunt through the plantation for 
a crab's leg, which some enemy may have tied to one 
of your palms; it is well known that this causes the 
fruit to fall, and to prevent such a catastrophe 
intelligent growers usually have a sheep's skull set 
on a pole in their plantations: it is a sure charm and 
counter-irritant or antidote. Should even this fail, 
the only orthodox recourse is to hang on each of your 
palms a slip of paper bearing the verse,* "He holds 
up the heavens to keep them from falling on the earth 
unless as a result of His will, because God is merciful 
and compassionate toward men." Few palms can 
withstand the influence of such a thought as that. 

*Koran, XXII, 64. 




PROTECTION FOR OFFSHOOTS 
The plant is surrounded by palm leaves, to keep off frost, in an exposed 
situation at Busreh, Turkish Arabia. 



CULTURE OF THE PALM 97 

A frost when the fruit was ripening or the flowers 
being pollinated might be disastrous, but such a thing 
is impossible in most date growing countries, and frost 
in winter is not serious enough to give any concern. 
Young trees should always be protected, but it is 
entirely needless to consider heating a palm garden, 
as orange growers do their groves. The Arab grower, 
when threatened by frost, places a tortoise on his 
back in the middle of the grove, and thus avoids all 
danger; but of course a man must stay beside him 
throughout the night, for if the tortoise should succeed 
in turning over on his belly and walking away, the 
frost would immediately descend in full force. 

There is danger from wind, however, in most 
date-growing regions, and it is highly necessary 
that ample windbreaks should be planted, particularly 
for the protection of young palms. If one is in a 
sandy region, he could well afford to plant numerous 
windbreaks through his orchard,* of a sufficiently 
dense nature to stop sand when it is blown through 
the air; otherwise a sandstorm, arriving when the 
dates are soft and sticky, may make the crop almost 
unsaleable. This difficulty is frequently experienced 
in the Persian Gulf region, where a whole crop is some- 
times nearly a loss; and the dates of Hasa are al- 
ways and notoriously gritty. 

The palm must be trimmed regularly, but it is 
better not to do this until it is four or five years old. 
After that the leaves that are actually dead or dying 
should be taken off each year, and the trunk cleaned 
up of fibre and other decaying matter which offers a 
refuge for borers. There is danger in trimming too 

*A row of seedling dates, reinforced by a row of pomegranates, 
would be excellent. The latter fruit is well adapted to resisting heat, 
drought, and alkali. 



98 DATEGROWING 

heavily, but not in the other extreme. The growers of 
Egypt cut off as many leaves as possible from their 
palms because they find a ready sale for use in Chris- 
tian and Jewish church festivals, and they thereby 
injure the productivity of their palms, a fact which 
residents of other regions do not hesitate to taunt 
them with. "It is," says Faqir Amin, "as if a man 
should shave his head, and then take off the scalp as 
well — what would be his condition? And what 
would his mother and brother say to him?" In 
adult palms one complete ring of ten to fifteen leaves 
can ordinarily be removed each year; they are useful 
as a frost protection for offshoots, or a shade in 
summer if such is desired. In Arab communities 
both leaves and fibre have a commercial value and 
are made into a great variety of products, the fibre 
furnishing cordage, stuffing for pack saddles, and the 
like, while the leaflets make baskets, and the midribs 
all kinds of furniture. 

In general, it may be said that the culture of the 
palm requires less pains and less skill and study than 
that of most fruits, and that the expense of growing it 
is correspondingly less. Pollination is the only 
delicate operation to be performed, and that is easily 
learned. This is a case where the value of a supply of 
seedling trees on which to practice will be evident. 
Apart from that, the only real problems connected 
with date growing occur in handling and marketing 
the crop. As for the culture itself, anyone who has 
mastered the few and simple fundamental principles 
of farming in a semi-arid country (which, however, 
are quite different from those of farming in the 
eastern United States) can make a success of growing 
date palms. 



POLLINATION 



CHAPTER VII 
POLLINATION 

Since the dawn of history, artificial pollination 
of the female date palm has been practiced in com- 
munities where its culture was commercially 
important. Bas-reliefs on the Assyrian monuments 
plainly show the operation. Herodotus,* who wrote 
about 450 B. C, gives the first description of the 
operation, which he saw at Babylon, but he confounds 
it with the caprification of the fig. Theophrastusf 
corrected him, and describes the operation clearly and 
correctly; Pliny, J however, seems to have been a 
little hazy as to the principle involved. 

The medieval Arab authorities understood arti- 
ficial pollination, but their lack of practical experience 
is shown in the dubious way with which they approach 
the subject. Abu-1 Khayr says, "The palm fecundated 
by the male at the time it blossoms will produce dates 
that are soft and juicy " — a proposition that is rather 
obvious to most date growers; and Ibn A warn, 
quoting this, adds, "I fecundated a wild palm in Al 
Sharaf at the time of opening the flowers, with those 
of a male introduced and tied to it, and dates of a 
good quality were produced; which operation is done 
only once a year, but it is necessary to repeat it each 
year as for figs." It must be borne in mind that these 
men lived in a seedling date region where there were 

♦History, Book I, ch. 193. 

fHistoria Plantarum, ed. Wimmer, vol. II, p. 6. 

tHistoria Naturalis, Book XIII, ch 7. 



102 DATEGROWING 

probably so many male palms that the fruit was 
pollinated even without the aid of man. 

But if they did not grasp the prime importance 
of the operation, they had a good excuse in precedent, 
for one of the most humiliating episodes in the career 
of the "divinely inspired" and professedly infallible 
Muhammad was due to the same ignorance — and 
it occurred at Madina, which has always claimed to 
be the center of the science of date growing. One 
spring the prophet announced that the artificial 
impregnation of the palm was an unnatural practice, 
and in the future would be unlawful for his followers. 
They loyally abstained, with many misgivings, no 
doubt; and in the fall there was no date crop. An 
indignation meeting was immediately held and a 
citizens' committee called on the prophet for a 
heart-to-heart talk, as a result of which Muhammad 
made a statement to this effect: "You are weak in 
spiritual knowledge, but are worldly-wise; therefore 
in the future J will confine myself to the government 
of your spiritual welfare, and let you manage the 
afiFairs of this world to suit yourselves." Next year 
the palms were artificially pollinated and the crop 
good as usual. 

Egypt has always been noted for the number of 
male palms it contained,* and it is probable that 
fecundation by the wind relieved the growers to some 
extent of the necessity for artificial impregnation; 
at any rate, the traveler John Ogilby, who wrote in 

*A report is still extant, made to Umar b. al Khatib, the second 
caliph, when he was contemplating the conquest of Egypt; his 
informant describes it as "a soil rich in harvests and in male palms." 
Quoted by Ma»udi in "The Prairies of Gold," vol. Ill, p. 12.5. Paris, 
1864. 



POLLINATION 103 

1670,* quotes one of his predecessors to the effect 
that the palms were sometimes pollinated by the wind. 
His description of the date is so quaint that it is worth 
a slight digression to insert it: he entitles it "The 
Dadel, a Tree Unknown to Us," and says: 

"In several places about Egypt and especially 
about Alexandria are great woods of Dadel trees, 
which the Arabians from the name of the fruit called 
Dachel.t 

"The Dadel tree, of which there are male and 
female, hath every other year abundance of fruit, 
but the female affords no fruit unless her branches 
be plashed with those of her mate. Many, to make 
the female fruitful, strow the matter that lies in the 
bag or receptacle, out of which the blossom and fruit 
comes, upon her branches; and probably if the 
Egyptians did not do so, they would bring forth no 
fruit, or if they did, they would never come to any 
perfection. But Veslingus seems to reject this, 
ascribing the great fruitfulness of it to the soil, being 
sandy and nitrous: for he affirms that he hath seen 
the earth in the Dadel-tree wood oftentimes thick- 
covered with a white down or callow, like cellar walls 
where we find our saltpetre, which by the sultry 
south winds from negro-land and the barren Arabia, 
is in great abundance driven up hither, and falling 
on the tops of the Dadel trees, not only makes them 
flourish but also pregnant. 

"The roots are so small, thin, and short that it is 
a wonder how it supports itself, being so great, 
especially when often charged by strong and assiduous 

♦OgUby, John. Africa, p. 105. London, 1670. 

tProperly Daqal or Degal. The word Daddel is the Swedish and 
Dutch for "date"; both go back to the Greek Daktylos. 



104 DATEGROWING 

gusts; for, contrary to other trees, this tapers down- 
ward and the slenderest part of the stalk is nearest 
the foot, which has made some suppose that the plant, 
though large, receives no nourishment from the earth 
by the root, but by the air. 

"There is no tree more profitable, or turns to 
greater account than this." 

The natural pollination mentioned by Veslingus 
seems to have been exceptional, however, for in 1800, 
when the French invasion prevented work in the fields, 
the palms around Cairo were not pollinated, and the 
crop was a total failure.* 

At the present time no dependence whatever is 
placed upon nature in the orient, and even the most 
isolated clumps of palms around water holes in the 
desert will, if they bear dates, be found to have been 
pollinated by some nomad Arab who looks on them 
as his property. A few cases have been noted in 
America where pollen has been carried, perhaps by 
insects, for distances of a quarter of a mile or more, 
but there is little data on which to form an opinion 
as to the possibilities of the fecundation of a female 
in a date growing country, without the aid of the 
grower, and the question is of no practical interest. 
An Italian poet of the fifteenth centuryf describes 
the pollination of a palm near Otranto by pollen 
carried by the wind from a male forty-five miles 
distant, but it is to be feared that his poetic tempera- 
ment interfered with his truthfulness. 

The method of pollination in America is the same 
as that practised in the orient, and it is given so clearly 

elile, Egyptian Flora. 
fPontanus. 



«r'*'Ai= w^ oxs^h, 




POLLINATION 105 

and accurately by a Persian writer,* that I quote his 
account verbatim: *' Phoenix dactylifera being 
dioecious — that is, having the male and female 
flowers on separate trees — artificial fertilization 
becomes a necessity, and is the means of ensuring a 
crop, especially where the male trees are far from the 
females, or not in the way of wind or insects. The 
latter agents are not considered sufficient by the date 
cultivators of the Persian Gulf, as when artificial 
fertilization is not resorted to the fruit yielded is 
abortive or blighted, with little flesh, without stones, 
and totally insipid. Under these circumstances it is 
called shis.'\ Therefore human agency, or artificial 
fertilization, is considered essential to a good crop of 
first-class dates. 

"This important operation is performed in the 
following manner: As soon as the spathe, or covering 
of the bunch of male flowers, has attained its full size 
and has come to maturity, it is detached. Its maturity 
is known by a faint rustling sound, elicited when the 
central part of the spathe is gently pressed between 
the fingers. Also if a slit is made in the margin of the 
spathe, so as to expose the flower, a peculiar odor 
is detected. When the bunch of mature male flowers 
is detached, the spathe is split open and the sprigs of 
male flowers are carefully removed and placed in a 
basket, which is then suspended and protected from 

*A. R Hakim Khan Bahadur, assistant to the poHtical resident 
at Fars, in memorandum dated July 1, 1884; quoted by Bonavia, 
"The Date Paim in India," p. 47. Calcutta, 1885. 

fThe imiversal and classical Arabic word, although there are 
many synonjTiis. In Algeria it is called, by metathesis, sish. Such 
dates frequently cause a report of the existence of seedless dates. 
All supposedly seedless dates reported to me by Arabs, which 1 have 
personally run down, have turned out to be merely unpollinated, but 
genuine seedless dates undoubtedly exist. They are described by 
Palgrave and others. 



106 D A T E G R O W I N G 

draughts, so as to prevent the pollen from being 
scattered. The male flowers are allowed to remain so 
for twenty to twenty-four hours before being used. 

"As soon as the female flowers have burst their 
enveloping spathe, the cultivator considers them fit 
for impregnation. He then takes with him a number 
of male sprigs, climbs up the female tree, and inserts 
one or two sprigs of male flowers into each bunch of 
female flowers, securing them with a strip of date 
leaflet. If the cultivator finds that some of the more 
forward female spathes have not yet burst, to save 
himself the trouble of reclimbing, he splits them open 
and inserts the male sprigs as before. Only very 
small and backward spathes he leaves for a subsequent 
operation, when he thinks them sufficiently matured.'' 

The operation always takes place in the middle 
of the day, since dampness is the greatest factor in 
failures. In Egypt, any time between ten a. m. and 
three p. m. is considered suitable. In Algeria, the 
cultivator does not work if a north or east wind is 
blowing, but does not object to a south or west wind, 
as these two are hot and dry. 

It is preferable to shake the male sprig over the 
female flower, before tying it in place, as the pollen 
thus reaches all parts of the cluster to better advantage. 
If a sheet of paper is held under the cluster, the 
pollen which falls can be caught and saved for the 
next palm. A paper bag is the best thing in which to 
carry the male flowers. It is probable that future 
experimentation will suggest some improvement over 
the Arab's method of handling the pollen. A weak 
bellows, such as is used for insect powder, has been 
suggested. 

As far as the pollen is concerned, the most 



POLLINATION 107 

important thing is to keep it dry from the beginning. 
For this reason the male flowers should be cut only 
during the warmer part of the day, and dried very 
carefully, otherwise the minute grains of pollen 
will agglutinate into a mass of no potency. If pollin- 
ation is performed in moist weather the same result 
may take place on the tree; and if a heavy fog or rain 
occurs after the female has been pollinated, it may 
wash off all the pollen. In such cases the blossoms 
should at once be repollinated, and usually the crop 
can be saved. 

If the pollen is kept dry it preserves its value for 
a long time, and in some date growing communities 
it is the custom to save a small supply from each year 
to the next — a custom that may well be followed in 
America, where females sometimes show" surprising 
precocity in bloom. A pollination made in 1912 at 
the Mecca Experiment Station with pollen seven years 
old, sent from the Tempe garden, was entirely suc- 
cessful. The elder Michaux reports,* but apparently 
not of his own knowledge, that pollen had preserved 
its power during nineteen years, in Persia. It can 
also be shipped easily from one region to another. 
Busreh often supplies pollen to a large part of the 
Persian gulf. 

In case of a shortage of pollen, that of almost any 
other species of Phoenix, or even distantly related 
genera, will give results. Phoenix canariensis, which 
abounds in the southwestern United States, furnishes 
an excellent pollen for fertilizing the date palm, and 
with some varieties, such as Ghars, the fruit produced 
is even better than when pollination is from a male of 

*Annales du Museum, Paris. Quoted in "Vegetable Substances 
I'sed for the Food of Man," vol. II, p. 46. London, 1846. 



108 DATEGROWING 

P. dactylifera. In California, Drummond has success- 
fully pollinated the date palm with the California 
fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, and the Mediterranean 
dwarf palm, Chamerops humilis,* both of which are 
common. There is certainly a field for fascinating 
and valuable experiment here. 

The palm usually flowers in March or April, 
but it is not regular, and blossoms may be found from 
February to June. It is, therefore, necessary to have 
enough varieties of males to provide pollen at various 
periods, unless one has males that bloom unusually 
early, and preserves the pollen from these. 

In order to be safe, a grower should have three 
or four males for each one hundred females. Never- 
theless, a really good male will pollinate a much larger 
number of palms than is indicated in those figures — 
frequently several hundred. Arabs point out males 
which they say will pollinate one thousand palms; 
and there is one at Indio, California, which might, 
almost match this record. There is just as much 
difference in the value of males as there is of females, 
and if one secures a really desirable specimen he 
should use every exertion to propagate it as rapidly 
as possible. 

Schweinfurth, in 1901, declared that the charac- 
teristics of the male had an influence on the fruit 
which resulted.! His statement was promptly 
challenged, as the generally accepted idea was that 
the influence of the male would not be seen in the 

*M. Denis of Hyeres did this a quarter of a century ago, and 
Naudin named the hybrid Micropkoenix decipiens. F. Sahut of 
Montpellier crossed the date palm with Trachycarpu^ {Chamerops) 
excelsus, in 188i, and Carriere named this hybrid M. sahuti. Ed. 
Andre in Revue Horticole, p. 128. Paris, 189-3. 

tSehweinfurth, Dr. George. Ueber die Kultur der Dattelpalme 
in Gartenflora, vol. 50, p. 513. Berlin, 1901. 



POLLINATION 109 

immediate resulting seed, but only when that seed 
was planted and in turn produced fruit. But the 
important experiments of Bruce Drummond, assistant 
arboriculturist of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in 
California, during recent years seem to confirm 
Schweinfurth's statement, and to show that the quali- 
ties of the male which is used for pollination have a 
decided influence on the fruit which results. Not 
only does the variety Ghars seem to produce better 
fruit when pollinated with Phoenix canariensis than 
when P. dactylifera is the parent, but a variety of 
males has been tried on different palms, and markedly 
different results observed. A difference of as much as 
one-third in the size, and of twenty days in the time 
of ripening, seems to have been due to a change in the 
male used for pollinating. In most Arab communities 
this fact seems to have been overlooked, and the value 
of a male is judged solely by the amount of pollen it 
produces; but the more intelligent growers of Baghdad 
and Oman confirm Schweinfurth and Drummond, 
declaring that the male used has a direct influence on 
the quality and quantity of fruit produced. 

While more evidence is needed to establish the 
proposition beyond dispute, it is of such importance 
that no one can afford to select his males haphazard. 
Unfortunately, the only way to know the quality of a 
male is to find out by experiment, and this requires 
some time; but it will be advisable to secure offshoots 
of males of known performance, and to depend on 
chance seedling males as little as possible. 

The flowers of the female palm usually open 
before the spathe does, so that pollination can be 
successfully performed even when the spathe is pre- 
maturely opened by a knife in the hands of the planter. 



110 DATE GROWING 

Experience has shown that this is not always the 
case, however, and a number of failures, where no 
fruit has been set, have been traced to the fact that 
the individual blossoms of the female remained 
tightly closed for several days after the spathe had 
opened, thus giving the pollen no chance to enter 
when it was shaken over the cluster. If any palm 
shows a disposition to set no fruit — and usually a 
palm with this tendency shows it each year — the 
operator should examine the female flowers under a 
low power microscope, to see whether they are opened 
or closed. If opened, a minute sticky substance, 
looking like a drop of dew, will be seen waiting to 
receive and fix the pollen: until this is apparent, it is a 
waste of time to pollinate the cluster. 

The difference between male and female flowers 
is marked, and when once it has been pointed out, 
no one can ever confuse them; but as it is of vital 
importance to every grower, and offers the only 
certain means of distinguishing the two sexes, I 
quote Milne's careful statement* at length: 

" In spring a number of structures, at first greenish 
and later brown, and measuring four to six inches 
across and a foot or more 'm length, make their 
appearance at the bases of the leaves which crown 
the palm. These structures are called spathes and 
each spathe incloses a cluster of flowers. When the 
spathe has become brown in color and has attained 
something like the size mentioned above, it splits 
open and exposes the cluster of flowers which it 
contains. Each flower consists of a central stem with a 
hundred or more branches radiating from it near its 
end and somewhat after the fashion of the hairs of a 
*Milne, D. "Date Cultivation in the Panjab," p. 12. Lahore, 1911. 



POLLINATION 111 

paint brush. Each of these small branches carries on 
it a larger number of tiny flowers. 

"The small branches on the male flower cluster 
are about six inches long, and if the cluster is shaken 
about the time the spathe splits open, a dense cloud 
of yellowish pollen dust will fall from it. On exam- 
ination it will be seen that in every little flower 
there are six little, yellowish pollen sacs, each on the 
top of a tiny stalk, and that it was the contents of 
these little pollen sacs that formed the cloud of pollen 
dust. Around the six little stalks with their pollen 
sacs (stamens) are six colorless little scale-like struc- 
tures which represent the sepals and petals in familiar 
flowers. These scale-like sepals and petals close over 
and protect the stamens until the pollen sacs have 
matured their pollen grains and are ready to burst 
and set the pollen free. Very soon after the large 
brown spathe splits open, the scales (sepals and 
petals) which covered and protected the stamens 
open out and the pollen sacs burst. The opening of 
the scales and the bursting of the pollen sacs are due 
to the cells of their epidermal tissues drying and 
contracting under the heat of the sun. The pollen 
sacs are usually open within an hour or two after the 
bursting of the spathe. 

"The spathe which encloses the female flower 
cluster is very similar to that which encloses the male 
cluster* and it bursts in the same way when the female 
cluster is ready for fertilization. The small branches 
of it are, however, less confined to the end of its 
main axis and are very much longer than the small 

*Furtherinore, the shapes of both vary according to the pressure 
and distortion to which they have been subjected while emerging 
from the pahn. Therefore attempts to identify the sex of a pahn by 
the shape of an old spathe remaining on it are uncertain. 



112 DATE GROWING 

branches on the male flower cluster. The female 
flower also differs very much from the male flower. 
It is an oval-looking body and might be mistaken for 
a male flower in which the white scales (sepals and 
petals) had not opened out. On dissecting it, however, 
it will be found that the central and main part of the 
flower is formed of three solid bodies closely applied 
to each other on their adjacent faces and forming 
what appears like one oval body. Each of these 
three solid bodies is called a carpel and contains a 
structure called an ovule, which when fertilized by the 
pollen gives rise to a seed, the carpel giving rise to a 
fruit at the same time.* At the bases of the three 
carpels are six scale-like structures similar to the 
protecting scaly sepals and petals found in the male 
flower, but very much smaller and clinging more 
closely to the carpels. A mass of female flowers 
therefore never has the very waxy, white appearance 
which a mass of open male flowers has. 

"At a distance, therefore, the flower clusters may 
be distinguished by the fact that the small branches 
in the male cluster are about six inches long and 
densely clustered at the end of the axis, while those of 
the female are usually several times that length and 
less densely clustered at the end of the axis. When 
the flowers newly open they may also be distinguished 
at a distance by the white waxy color of the male 
flowers, and the more yellowish hue and less crowded 
appearance of the female flowers. If taken in hand 
at this stage a dense cloud of pollen dust will be 
produced from the male flower, while none will 
appear from the female flower. Also six stamens with 

*Two of these carpels drop off while the dates are still small, 
leaving only one fruit on each stem, under normal conditions. 



POLLINATION 113 

six comparatively large, waxy-looking scales will 
constitute each male flower, while the female flower 
will be composed of three carpels closely applied to 
each other and forming what looks like a single solid, 
oval body, and having six very tiny scales closely 
applied to the base. The flower clusters can also be 
distinguished at that stage by their smell." 
&*;&• I^ must be noted, however, that in all parts of the 
world monoecious date palms are occasionally found — 
that is, palms on which one cluster will be composed of 
male flowers and another of female flowers. In such 
a case the female cluster will produce fruit if pollinated 
by its brother, the male spadix. Again, hermaphro- 
dite flowers are sometimes found, where several more 
or less functional carpels and several more or less 
functional stamens occur in the same flower; this 
can only be classed as an abnormality. It appears 
that the same tree may be normal one year and monoe- 
cious the next, or may suddenly throw out a few 
hermaphrodite flowers and never do so again, but 
resume its normal functioning. Such cases are of 
great interest to botanists, and anyone who may 
observe palms of this kind should report on them. 
For the commercial grower, they have no practical 
importance. 

It is also worthy of note, in passing, that a date 
palm sometimes flowers in the fall instead of the spring. 
This has been the case on the coast of Southern 
California, where the summers are cool; the palm 
then carries its fruits half -matured through the winter, 
and ripens them the following spring. It is also 
doubtless the case with the varieties of dates reported 
in Egypt, which bear two crops a year — the second 
crop must be due to a fall flowering, the fruit of which 



114 DATEGROWING 

is carried through the winter. In an ordinary date 
country the grower is not likely ever to see such a case, 
but if he did, the value of it would be lost to him 
unless he had some pollen stored up in reserve. 

Artificial pollination is the only delicate operation 
connected with the culture of the palm, and the 
inexperienced grower usually is frightened by it; 
yet it is troublesome not because of any intrinsic 
difficulty, but merely because it is a kind of work 
which the average rancher is not accustomed to 
perform. Any man of average intelligence can do it, 
and once he has done it he will have no hesitation 
about attempting it a second time. But as the 
success of the crop absolutely depends on it, and as the 
beginner is naturally worried by this fact, I will go 
over the necessary operations again. 

When a female spathe begins to crack, a male 
spathe in the proper stage of development must at 
once be selected. It is better not to wait until the male 
spathe has split open, as a good deal of the pollen 
will then be lost; its brown color and soft texture 
usually indicate when it is about ready to open. The 
spathe is then cut off and the cluster taken from it. 
It will be seen that the pollen sacs have not yet burst, 
but are still covered by their waxy white scales. 
The small sprigs of the flower should be cut apart and 
spread out in a dry place, free from air currents, until 
they burst and have had a chance to dry; if put in the 
sun this will take only a few hours in an atmosphere 
such as that of Coachella Valley. They should then 
be placed in a paper bag for convenience in carrying; 
if the pollen falls out of its sacs it will be held in the 
bag, and can still be used. The spathe of the female 
flower, which has already split, is pulled apart to 



POLLINATION 116 

facilitate work, and a sprig of the male shaken over 
it, then stuck in it and tied in place by a piece of 
string, so that if some of the female flowers have not 
yet opened they may still be pollinated by the wind. 
That is all there is to it. 

The work at this season of the year requires 
constant and conscientious supervision, however, for 
if the female clusters are not pollinated very soon after 
the spathe bursts, they usually become unreceptive. 
An inspection of the plantation every other day during 
the flowering season would probably suffice, but if a 
grower has only a few trees he can easily keep track 
of them every day. When he has pollinated a cluster, 
it would be convenient to tie a bright colored piece of 
cloth to it, so that he would not be confused as to 
which clusters he had pollinated and which he had not. 



MALE PALMS 



CHAPTER VIII 
MALE PALMS 

If it is accepted that the characteristics of the 
male exert a direct influence on the fruit produced, it 
becomes of prime necessity to select the male parent 
with as much care as the female. This is a field in 
which most of the experimentation remains to be 
done, and each grower will have to work the problem 
out for himself, trying the pollen of different males on 
the same palm, preferably by pollinating each cluster 
on the female from a different male. If the clusters 
are then tagged to show what pollen was used, a good 
idea can be had in one year as to the most desirable 
mate for that particular variety, and the grower can 
then propagate enough of that strain of males to 
ensure as much pollen as he needs. With a plantation 
of average size, and a good supply of males with which 
to experiment, only a year or two will be needed to 
find the right combinations in each case and the 
grower can then go ahead with confidence. If he does 
not possess enough males, there is danger that he may 
continue for some years without getting the best or 
earliest crop possible. 

It is therefore desirable that he should keep as 
many of his seedling males as will not interfere with 
his other work, and this can best be done, as already 
explained, by planting a windbreak or hedge of 
seedlings and letting all the males remain in it. 

But the tests in California, although not yet 
extensive enough to be conclusive, indicate that the 
merits of seedling males are, in general, not great, 



120 DATEGROWING 

and the scientific grower will do his best to get a 
collection of males of known varieties, even if he has 
only one of each kind. There are some males in the 
United States which fulfil all the requirements, and 
others have been imported from the orient. 

Of the latter class, the best in Southern California 
has been found to be Ghanami or "bushy head ", which 
was brought from Busreh, where it is the favorite of 
the most intelligent growers. It begins to furnish 
pollen in its third year, blooms early in the season, and 
is prolific, often carrying from twenty to thirty clusters. 
In Arizona it seems not to have been quite so valuable 
as in California. 

Other named varieties at Busreh are Hukri, 
whose name probably signifies "what is laid by in 
times of scarcity" and points to the storing of pollen 
from year to year — although this practice is rare 
among modern Mesopotamians; Wardi, "long haired", 
and Sumaysmi. None of these, I believe, has been 
introduced to the United States. 

At Baghdad the number of named varieties of 
male is larger, fifteen or twenty being distinguished, 
but all by the name of the female variety of which they 
are supposed to be a product. One speaks of an 
Asharasi male, and means that originally it was a 
seedling of the Asharasi female — but no one knows 
what its male parentage was. Nowadays, of course, 
the variety is propagated only by offshoots. Asharasi 
is declared to be the best of all males there, Arabs 
declaring that it sometimes bears forty or fifty spadices, 
and that not only is the yield of fruit larger when this 
variety is used for pollination on any female, but that 
the flavor of the dates is also better. Accordingly, the 
best kept gardens contain only this variety of male; 



MALEPALMS 121 

but if it is lacking, Barban is preferred, with 
Elhadhrawi third choice. The Baghdad males have 
not yet been tested in the United States. I imported 
forty-nine offshoots of Asharasi in 1913, but in order 
to avoid confusion with the female of the same name 
I kept only the first two syllables, and added an 
Arabic word for male; so the variety is introduced to 
California as Ashar Fahal. 

Many ofiFshoot-propagated varieties of males 
from North Africa have been tested in the United 
States, but with poor results, a large proportion of 
them proving sterile — a condition often found in 
seedling males, as well. None of them was named — 
in fact, Busreh and Baghdad are the only regions where 
I have been able to find named varieties of male 
perpetuated, unless it be in Oman, where I could get 
no conclusive evidence. In Algeria I heard of, but 
did not see, a male variety called Fahal Aksba. 

A male imported from Egypt some years ago 
under the name of Dakar Majahel* has proved better 
than any other in Arizona, but has been of little value 
in California. 

As a start, the best thing a grower of dates can 
do is to consult his neighbors and find out what 
males succeed in that locality, then secure these and 
use them until he is able to test the needs of his 
palms for himself. He should act early in this matter, 
for more than one crop of fruit has been lost in the 
United States through lack of pollination, in spite of 
the large number of seedling palms which are to be 
found everywhere. 

Then, if the grower has planted a hedge of palms, 

*But this is not a variety name. It is simply some one's attempt 
to spell the Arabic for "unknown male." 



122 DATEGROWING 

as has been often suggested here, he will have a large 
number of males, representing all kinds of character- 
istics, and taking up so little room on his grounds 
that they can be allowed to grow indefinitely. With 
the pollen of these he can begin to experiment, both 
on other seedlings, and (in a more limited way, not to 
reduce profits) on his choice varieties of palms, until 
he has found what each male will do. As soon as he 
gets a male that satisfies any particular variety of 
female, he should make a careful note of the fact and 
use nothing else with that variety. If he has such a 
male as Ghanami to start with, it is quite likely that 
he will find nothing better; but whatever male he 
selects for perpetuation he can readily propagate by 
offshoots until he has as many as he can ever need, 
and some to sell to his neighbors. 

If one secures a male that blooms very early and 
seems potent, he should propagate it as a precaution, 
so that he may always have pollen at the beginning 
of the season. 

Until seedlings have blossomed, no way has yet 
been found to distinguish male from female. Doubtless 
there are some differences, but they are not sufficiently 
marked and constant to be relied on. But as soon as 
the first flower has appeared, the question is 
permanently settled. 

The offshoots of different male varieties differ 
from each other almost as much as the offshoots of 
different female varieties; but in general it is not 
difficult to distinguish a male offshoot from a female 
offshoot, and an adult male palm can be told from an 
adult female in most cases, although not in all, for 
some varieties of female exactly resemble a male palm. 
The general difference is that the male has more and 



MALEPALMS 12S 

heavier leaves, which are stiff, and closely packed 
together; the trunk is usually stouter. 

The characteristics of a male offshoot, as 
distinguished from a female, are generally as follows : 

The number of the leaves in the crown is greater. 

The segments of the leaves are somewhat stouter, 
and their sharp points are consequently more 
penetrating. 

The spines are frequently heavier and set closer 
together. 

The leaves have a crowded appearance (because 
there are more of them). 

If there is a stem, it is usually thicker than in the 
case of females. 

It is not to be supposed, however, that a novice 
can decide with certainty whether an offshoot is male 
or female. Experience and close observation are 
required. 

Arabs of Northern Africa have an interesting 
theory that if the midrib of each leaf of a male palm, 
still young, is split from tip to base, the palm will 
become a female. This has not usually been considered 
worthy of the attention of scientific men, yet a French 
grower at Biskra claims to have proved its truth to his 
own satisfaction. Anyone with a few male seedlings 
to spare may be interested to try it for himself. The 
Frenchman referred to also states that he has suc- 
ceeded in grafting the palm — an operation that is, 
theoretically, not impossible, but at least has never 
been accomplished (unless by him) and placed on 
scientific record. 

As particularly choice varieties of males are 
found and perpetuated, it is much to be desired that 



124 DATE GROWING 

they be given distinctive names. This, however, 
should be done by some association or scientific body, 
as experience has amply proved that where the 
nomenclature of varieties is left to individual growers 
endless confusion inevitably results. Perhaps a 
co-operative association of date growers could appoint 
a committee to supervise such matters. 



HANDLING THE CROP 



CHAPTER IX 

HANDLING THE CROP 

A few dates — Persian Gulf varieties — ripen during 
the last week of July in California, under favorable 
conditions, but August is as early as one can expect 
any of the sorts which have so far been tried out here, 
and a much larger number still will come on in 
September, which is the month of principal harvest, 
unless the summer has been abnormal. In October 
the late dates, and particularly those from Algeria, 
mature, finishing in November, the first half of 
which should see the wind-up of the entire harvest, 
unless it be for some particular variety like Shitwi or 
— in Arizona — Badrashin. 

This crop season corresponds with the season in 
all other date growing countries, except India, where 
the advent of the monsoon in summer forces the dates 
in many districts to complete their maturity before 
July. At Baghdad the first dates ripen in August and 
the last in November. At Busreh the same is the case; 
the height of the season is mid-September, when 
Halawi, Khadhrawi and Sayir, the three great com- 
mercial varieties, are simultaneously on the market. 
Oman has the earliest dates I know; they are to be 
found in the market from May 15th to November 
15th, in a fresh state. Some of the Egyptian dates 
are said to ripen in June, but the bulk of the crop does 
not appear before August 1st. In Arabia proper — 
at Madina, for example — the first dates appear 
June 1st, and the main harvest a month later. In 



128 DATE GROWING 

North Africa September and October are the months 
of greatest activity. 

As the fruit begins to soften, it is the object of a 
good deal of anxiety on the part of its owner, for it 
may meet injury in several ways, against which he 
must guard. An unseasonable rain may cause nearly 
ripe dates to ferment. This is little to be expected 
in Southern California, and experience has shown that 
in that dry climate the effects of an untimely shower 
are so soon obliterated by the sun that the actual 
damage is slight. In Arizona there is greater danger, 
for the ground and air may remain moist for days 
after the rain has stopped. In such a case, if the 
dates are ripe enough to receive damage, they must 
be at once picked and prepared for market by the 
rapid artificial method described in another chapter. 

Insects and birds sometimes make trouble when 
the fruit is ripening.* A bag of cheesecloth is absolute 
protection against them, however. In some localities 
human thieves are still more annoying. The Arab of 
North Africa is a redoubtable visitor at night: no 
wall or hedge will turn him, nor does the fiercest dog 
deter him, for he strips off his clothes and smears his 
body with a rancid grease. Then if a dog appears, 
the native drops on all fours, and the most vicious 
animal will not attack such an extraordinary creature. 

When the dates are finally ripe enough to pick, 
the greatest activity of the year begins. If one is so 
fortunate as to have varieties which mature their fruit 
evenly and bear it on long stems, he will save a lot of 
money, for it can then be stripped off the tree without 
delay. In Arizona, Birket al Hajji has proved the 

*Arabs speak of particularly choice dates as "crow's dates" 
because the crow is thought to select the best fruit on the palm for his 
attacks. 



HANDLING THE CROP 129 

best of all varieties to pick — two men can easily gather 
one thousand pounds in a day. Ghars, on the other 
hand, holds its fruit close between its thorny leaf 
stalks, and as, in the moist climate of Tempe, it ripens 
unevenly, the picker must scrutinize each individual 
berry. Under these circumstances it has been found 
at Tempe that a picker sometimes will not secure more 
than fifty pounds of Ghars berries in a day. 

Two men can usually work together to advantage , 
one holding a basket into which the other places the 
berries. They should cut the spines from the leaf 
stems before beginning work. 

At the first picking it is best, unless with a variety 
which ripens its fruit very evenly, to go over the bunch 
carefully, and select only those dates which are really 
ripe enough to pick. The rest of the bunch is left 
on the tree for subsequent picking. In bad climates, 
or with bad varieties, the dates may have to be taken 
at three or more times, but in Southern California 
this is rarely the case. The Arab usually cuts a whole 
cluster at a time, but he wastes a great deal of the 
crop, and has more culls on his hands than a scientific 
grower will desire. His methods are not to be taken 
as a pattern. He frequently cuts a bunch and lets it 
drop twenty or thirty feet to the ground to save the 
trouble of lowering it on a rope. 

If the dates are to be consumed at home they 
require no further treatment, unless it be a washing 
to clean them of dust. The dainty Arab grower 
sometimes rinses them in diluted date syrup — a 
refinement that is hardly worth while. If they are 
washed, they should be well dried in the sun. 

If they are to be kept for some time, or are to be 
marketed, they should be pasteurized as soon as 



130 DATEGROWING 

they are brought from the field, in order to free them 
of insect eggs and the bacteria of fermentation and 
decay. A temperature of 180° to 190° F. for three 
hours is all that is necessary. The rancher can 
perform the operation in the oven of his cookstove, 
in a rough way, but commercial growers will probably 
build an oven for the purpose, in order to handle 
considerable quantities of fruit, spread out on shallow 
trays with wire-mesh bottoms, to give free circulation 
of the air. If an incubator is kept for rapid artificial 
ripening of the dates, it can also be used for 
pasteurization. 

In a dry, hot climate, and with suitable varieties 
of dates, pasteurization will be unnecessary unless 
the fruit is likely to be stored for a long period of time. 
The grower should use his own judgment, but he 
should err on the safe side, for it will be detrimental 
to the entire future of the industry if any one puts 
on the market dates which are infested with worms. 

If the dates are ripened on the palm, they will be 
ready for packing as soon as they are pasteurized 
and after, in the case of soft varieties, they have been 
dried well in the sun. Otherwise they must be arti- 
ficially ripened, but I leave the discussion of that 
process for a separate chapter. 

Packing is a subject on which the grower must 
follow his own ideas, or, later, the ideas of the co- 
operative association of which he may be a member. 
I can, therefore, only give some general suggestions. 
It is hardly necessary to point out that packing is, 
as far as the creation of public sentiment is concerned, 
probably the most important part of the date industry, 
and that any grower who allows himself to sell dates 
that are not well packed is injuring not only his own 



HANDLING THE CROP 131 

interests, but those of every other grower in the 
country. Eventually, no doubt, it will be necessary 
to have a strong co-operative association to standard- 
ize the packs and see that every brand is kept at par. 

If dates are to be packed in bulk, the box should 
be lined with a good grade of heavy, paraffined paper, 
and the fruit laid in rows, sufficiently pressed together 
to be tight, and prevent the dates to some extent from 
drying out, but yet not enough to squeeze them out 
of shape. It is desirable that dates should be packed 
with the calyx in place, as when this is pulled out it 
leaves a broad avenue for dirt and worms to enter 
the seed cavity. One can not absolutely insist on this, 
as it is impossible with certain varieties. 

The pack must be uniform, every date being of 
the same variety. Otherwise the grower can not 
expect to get any higher price than is paid for culls. 

If the dates are not to be sold in bulk, and yet 
can not meet the requirements of the fancy trade, a 
wooden berry box offers a cheap and convenient 
means of packing. If soft, the dates should be 
covered with paper, and a ribbon across the top adds 
a touch of attractiveness at a slight cost. But in such 
a matter each packer will have ideas of his own. 

The most remunerative trade, however, and the 
one to which every shipper will desire to cater if the 
quality of his fruit permits, is that for dates packed 
like confectionery. For this purpose, boxes holding 
a pound or two pounds are used, and may be made of 
pasteboard, wood or tin; the former are good enough 
for ordinary purposes. Usually only two layers of 
dates are placed in a box, but they must be selected 
fruit, every berry plump, sound, well ripened, and not 
crushed. The top layer is packed with a little extra 



132 DATEGROWING 

care, and a narrow space left down the middle of the 
box, lengthwise, in which a piece of one of the slender 
branches of the date cluster is placed, so that the 
effect, on opening the box, is that of dates still attached 
to the branch. A minute's inspection of any well- 
packed Algerian or American dates will show the 
method of packing, and the packer's success with it 
depends solely on his own neatness and good taste 
and the quality of his materials. The oiled paper 
should be folded over the top of the dates, before the 
cover is put on. If one wishes to sell dates at $1.00 
a pound, there must be nothing about the package 
that is not first-class, and the grower has plenty of room 
to show his artistic skill in providing a suitable label. 

There remains the marketing of dates in bunches, 
a feature of the industry that, I believe, will have an 
important future for those date-growing regions 
which are conveniently near to a market, and in the 
case of suitable varieties, such as Zahidi in the stage 
which Baghdadis call "kursi." Deglet Nur and 
Yatimeh also hang well on the cluster, and are much 
sold in that condition in the Algerian markets; so do 
many other varieties, if they are properly handled. 
For this purpose as large a cluster as possible should 
be selected, and all spoiled or immature dates picked 
off. If it is placed in the grocer's window, properly 
protected from flies, and if the dates are really good, 
few customers can resist purchasing. A large bow of 
ribbon on the stem of the cluster would add to the 
attractiveness of the display. 

By the use of artificial ripening, it is possible that 
clusters of dates which mature evenly could be shipped 
while still firm, even to a distant market, and ripened 
on their arrival, before being exposed for sale. 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 



CHAPTER X 

ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 

From the dawn of history crude methods of 
artificial ripening have been practised on the date. 
The Arab sometimes takes a bundle of nettles or 
thorny twigs and beats a green cluster of dates with 
it; the perforation of the skin sets up a fermentation 
in each berry which, to an Arab palate, quickly 
makes it ripe enough to eat. Again, he cuts partly 
through the stem of the cluster, and by thus shutting 
off some of the nutrition supplied to the dates causes 
them to ripen prematurely. 

The process is oftener applied after the dates 
have been picked. Indeed, the immense quantities 
of boiled dates sold in the Persian Gulf region and 
India are really only dates that have been ripened 
artificially. They are taken while still hard and nearly 
green, and boiled for an hour or more. If astringent, 
a large handful of salt is added to each gallon of water. 
Then they are dried for eight or ten days in the sun, 
and are ready for use. In some regions, after boiling 
they are fried in oil. This renders them hard, and 
usually there is some astringency left, but in the most 
satisfactory cases the flavor is nutty and crisp, or 
sometimes very much like maple sugar. Dates in 
this condition will keep for a year or more.* 

In the Sindh desert green dates are "ripened" 
by a quick process, being packed tightly in jars of 

*Dates so prepared are called kharak pokhta (Pars.) or 
khalal matbtikh (Arab.), both of which mean "boiled, unripe dates"; 
or in India, bhugrian or chubara. 



136 D A T E G R O W I N G 

salt and left overnight. A similar method is in use 
in Egypt. 

Most of the dates of Spain are also artificially 
ripened, by immersion in hot vinegar for a few minutes. 
The acetic acid ripens them over night into an eatable 
product. 

A peculiar slow method of ripening the variety 
Yatimeh is used in Algeria, an entire cluster being 
cut before it is quite ripe, and packed in a box entirely 
surrounded by dry dates, usually of the variety 
Mashi Degla. They are left until spring, when 
the dates come out in perfect condition. 

Most Deglet Nurs of North Africa undergo 
slow artificial ripening, usually without realization 
on the part of the packer of what he is doing. They 
are picked when they show a translucent spot on 
one side, and are then packed; after eight or ten days 
they are in perfect condition for use. 

The big Majhul dates of Tafilalet are all ripened 
off the tree, being picked when they have turned 
yellow, and spread on the ground in the sun. They 
are not protected at night, but the dates of Lower 
California and Mexico, which are artificially ripened 
in the same manner, are wrapped up in blankets at 
night to keep the temperature more even. The 
same process, in principle, is used all over the date- 
growing world, and at harvest-time the flat roofs of 
the houses are always covered with curing dates. 

Even before the Christian era, Pliny points to 
artificial ripening of dates in Egypt, when he says,* 
"The date of Thebais is at once packed in casks, with 
all its natural heat and freshness; for without this 
precaution it quickly becomes vapid; it is of a poor, 

*Hist. Nat.. Bk. XIII, ch. 9. 




FLOWERS OF THE PALM 
Left, the crowded blossoms of the male; right, the more widely separated 
blossoms of the female. 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 137 

sickly taste, too, if it is not exposed, before it is eaten, 
to the heat of an oven. " 

There is nothing new, then, about the idea of 
ripening dates artificially, but the attention of 
science was never turned to the subject until it was 
taken up by Americans. Members of the University 
of Arizona Experiment Station began the work, and 
were afterward joined by investigators from the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, and private individuals. 
The investigations have been carried out along a 
number of lines, and while it is probable that none of 
them have reached their full development, they have 
been so definitely successful that artificial ripening 
can be considered a necessary part of modern date 
growing, and an operation which is within the means 
and skill of any intelligent rancher. 

Advantages to be derived from artificial ripening 
of the date are thus summarized by R. H. Forbes, 
director of the Arizona Experiment Station: 

1. The fruit can be harvested cheaply, by the 
bunch, before the berries begin to drop or are attacked 
by insects, mould, or bacteria. 

2. Danger of loss by untimely rains is minimized* 

3. The ravages of worms in the ripened crop 
are avoided. 

4. Greater cleanliness of the product is possible 
than with naturally ripened dates. 

5. Late varieties, among them Deglet Niir, 
which do not ripen satisfactorily here (in Arizona), 
may be successfully brought through. 

6. Early varieties may probably be grown and 
ripened at higher altitudes than formerly. 

7. Dates while yet hard may be shipped without 



138 DATEGROWING 

injury to a distance, then ripened artificially, and 
marketed in a fresh and prime condition. 

Work in Arizona was first begun with the use of 
moist heat, and this was carried on until successful 
results were obtained, with the drawback that much 
of the cane sugar was turned into invert sugar.* 
Dr. A. E. Vinson then took up the use of chemicals, 
and found many which would induce artificial ripen- 
ing. Some of them, however, had the disadvantage of 
making the dates inedible, because of their own odors, 
— e.g., gasoline and ammonia. Among the sub- 
stances which gave fairly good results were benzoic 
acid, salicylic acid, sodium benzoate, sodium salicylate, 
sodium acetate, potassium acetate, oxalic, malonic, 
succinic and lactic acids, acetamide, formamide, 
hippuric acid, cinnamic acid, and hydroxylamine 
chlorhydrate. He finally settled on nitrous ether as 
the most desirable agent, but has since given this up 
in favor of carbon dioxid, which is now used to 
ripen most of the dates sold from Tempe Experiment 
Station, t 

The basis of this application is the fact that the 

date, when it is ripening naturally, liberates large 

quantities of carbon dioxid. It was, therefore, 

assumed that this gas played an important part in 

ripening the dates, and experiment has shown this 

to be the fact. 

*But this is hardly a real disadvantage, for most good (and bad) 
dates are invert sugar dates. Up to the present only two varieties 
have been found which are cane sugar fruits: Deglet Niir and Ma- 
kantishi, of North Africa, and even these always contain at least a 
small percentage of invert sugar, just as all ripe invert sugar dates 
contain a little cane sugar. 

tVinson, A. E. " Chemistry and Ripening of the Date." Univ. 
of Ariz. Agric. Exp. Sta. Bui. No. 66, Tucson, May 1, 1911. The 
results -'of the work with carbon dioxid have not yet appeared in 
print, however. 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 139 

The process of ripening dates in this manner is 
simple and not expensive. It requires only a tank of 
carbon dioxid, which can be obtained from commercial 
manufacturers, and a chamber in which the heat can 
be kept steadily at a temperature around 135 F. A 
tight closet or cabinet can easily be constructed for 
this purpose, with a hot water heater, to supply the 
essential humidity. The quantity of gas used is very 
small. Time needed will depend on the stage of 
maturity of the date when picked, but should never 
exceed twenty-four hours. Pasteurization should 
precede the treatment. 

Dr. Vinson considers that this is the best method 
for large, soft dates, while moist heat gives better 
results with Deglet Nur. It must be stated, however, 
that the problems of Arizona, due to climatic 
conditions, are peculiar, and that what may be 
necessary or desirable there may be otherwise in a 
different state. In California less favorable results 
have been secured with the gas, and in the present 
state of affairs it is hardly worth while for a grower 
to try it, since entirely satisfactory results can be 
attained without it. In Arizona the grower must 
decide for himself what treatment he will use; if he is 
in such an unfavorable situation as Tempe, where the 
ground is continually saturated, the air frequently 
moist, and summer rains to be expected, perhaps 
carbon dioxid will be necessary. 

Moist heat was used by G. F. Freeman of the 
Arizona Experiment Station, who first published 
details of the work;* afterward it was taken up by 
Bruce Drummond of the Bureau of Plant Industry 
Station at Indio, California, and a number of private 

•Freeman, G. F. "Ripening Dates by Incubation." Ibid. 



140 DATEGROWING 

growers under his supervision. The method was 
brought to efficiency,* but has been partly abandoned 
in favor of slower ripening without artificial heat. 
It is still invaluable, however, in the case of dates 
which have been exposed to rain while ripening, or 
have mummified on the tree, or when for any other 
reason it is desired to produce quick results; and 
every grower can and should master the details of it. 
It is true that a good deal of the technique depends 
on the judgment of the operator, but this is also the 
case with the baking of bread, in which every good 
housekeeper has attained success. 

The apparatus required is an oven of some 
kind in which heat can be maintained at about 110° F. 
for a period of twenty-four hours. A large incubator 
made for poultrymen will do, but something cheaper 
could easily be constructed from galvanized iron, 
provided ,with a coil of hot water pipes and a kerosene 
lamp. The dates should be washed and drained 
thoroughly, if they are nearly ripe; but if they are 
still hard, as is usually the case, they should be 
soaked in tepid water for from twenty-four to forty- 
eight hours. Then they are placed on a screen in the 
incubator, with a pan of water underneath, and the 
incubator tightly closed. If the dates were picked 
when hard, from eighteen to twenty-three hours 
will be necessary, at a temperature of 110° F., to 
ripen them, but if they were soft, and merely picked 
because suddenly struck by a rain, a few hours may 
be sufficient to complete the process, which has the 
advantage of freeing them from all insect life, as well 
as preventing fermentation. 

Good dates are undeniably produced by this 
*Results of this work were never published authoritatively'. 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 141 

process, yet the flavor, because of the effect of heat 
on their syrup, is not quite hke that of a naturally- 
ripened date. Hence the slower ripening without 
heat is more satisfactory, as well as cheaper and 
simpler, when it can be practiced, as it can in all 
ordinary cases in a favorable climate, such as that of 
California and most date-growing regions. It has 
given particularly good results with Deglet Niir, but 
seems to be applicable to practically all varieties. 
It is, indeed, used by Arabs to a certain extent for all 
varieties, and has been for centuries, as it has been for 
other fruits in all parts of the world. Swingle de- 
scribes the process,* as it takes place naturally, as 
follows : 

"My attention was drawn to the method in this 
manner: Toward the end of November, 1910, in 
coming from Mecca, California, to Washington, (D.C.), 
I carried in my valise a Deglet Nur cluster loaded with 
dates not ripe, but in the condition most favorable to 
incubation. I was ten days on the road, from 
November 23 to December 4, and during that time 
my valise was either in a sleeping car or hotel, both 
heated by steam to an average temperature of from 
68° to 86° F. On my arrival at Washington I was 
astonished to find in my valise, not yellowish, bitter, 
and uneatable fruit but, on the contrary, amber, 
translucent dates with an exquisite taste and perfume, 
much superior to those ripened by incubation. They 
had even that characteristic Deglet Nur flavor so 
much appreciated by lovers of that variety. 

"The idea came to me that this slow ripening 
which had taken place in my valise must also take 

*Swingle, Walter T., Maturation Artificielle de la Datte Deglet- 
Nour. Comptes Rendus de rAcademie des Sciences de Paris, 
t. 165, p. 549, seance du 16 septembre, 1912. 



142 DATEGROWING 

place to a certain extent in the boxes of dates which are 
sent from the Algerian or Tunisian Sahara to Biskra 
or Marseille for packing and export. These boxes 
are oblong (16x32x64 cm.) and contain both loose 
dates and dates on the branch. They are carried on 
camel-back for two to five days, according to the 
distance of the oasis from the railway. Unquestion- 
ably the temperature in these boxes is high enough 
to permit the slow ripening of the fruit. 

"In December, 1911, I accompanied my friend 
and colleague Dr. Trabut in the oases around Biskra 
to study the date palms and their diseases. Pierre 
Osval, manager of the oases El Amri and Foughala, 
west of Biskra, showed us some boxes of Deglet 
Nurs. These dates had been put in the box when 
they showed more or less translucent spots on one 
side; they were mostly detached, but there were also 
some in clusters. After eight or ten days in the 
storehouse, the fruit had become ripe and left nothing 
to be desired, either for color or for flavor. 

"What Mr. Osval did deliberately takes place in 
most of the shipments of dates from the Sahara, with- 
out anyone paying attention to it. The dates must 
be picked before they are entirely ripe, to have them 
reach their destination in good condition; they then 
ripen in transit.* 

"The ripening of dates," Mr. Swingle continues, 
" must be considered composed of two distinct phases. 
The first, which one might call ' botanical maturation, ' 
is accomplished as soon as the fruit reaches full size 
and has the seed ripe. Dates at this stage are fat 
and smooth, yellow or red according to variety. 
They are very astringent and not eatable. 

* Algerian Arabs regularly ripen Kasbeh (El Kseba) in this way. 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 143 

"The second phase is the real ripening; it consists 
of complex chemical transformations. The cane 
sugar becomes invert sugar and the free tannin is 
deposited in insoluble form in the giant cells which 
Tichomirow, Kearney and Lloyd have described. 

"Botanical maturationis simply accomplished with 
the aid of a sufficient amount of heat, an amount so 
large for late varieties that it is reached only in 
regions having an extreme desert climate. 

"On the contrary, in the real ripening humidity 
plays an essential part. One cannot ripen dates 
artificially either by incubation or by the slow system, 
if the atmosphere is dry. In artificial ripening, the 
air which surrounds the dates must be saturated 
with the humidity which the dates give off as they dry 
and wrinkle. The packing cases in which Deglet 
Nur dates are sent from the oases to Biskra, Algiers or 
Marseille contain a mixture of loose dates and dates 
on the branch, so that the space between these 
branches is occupied by moist air. Deglet Nur 
can ripen on the tree in many oases of the Algerian 
and Tunisian Sahara; but in the extreme autumnal 
aridity of the deserts of the southwestern United 
States, it can not do so on the tree. The dates 
reach their full size in September or October, then 
dry on the tree, wrinkling more or less. There 
results a date which more resembles dry dates like 
Makantishi than Deglet Nur as it is known in Algeria 
and Tunisia."* 

What Mr. Swingle says of dates shriveling and 
hardening on the palm applies especially to Deglet 
Nur, yet dates of all varieties have been found to give 

*Dates in such a condition should be soaked in water for two 
days and then treated as for rapid ripening. 



144 DATEGROWING 

good results when picked early and allowed to ripen 
indoors. There is no secret about the method, and 
anyone who has a warm storehouse can utilize it 
for that purpose. The dates are picked when the 
first soft spots appear, and packed loosely in boxes 
which will hold thirty or forty pounds — cracker 
boxes are convenient and cheap. Whole clusters 
may be put in if they ripen evenly; otherwise the first 
dates to mature will have to be picked by hand, and 
the rest of the cluster left until a few days or a week 
later. The boxes are then tightly covered and placed 
in the storehouse, which at sundown is closed to 
prevent the entrance of night air; by this means the 
temperature in Coachella Valley will not fall much 
below 80°. Under favorable conditions three or four 
days suffice to ripen the dates perfectly; furthermore, 
they ripen evenly arid the loss on a bunch need not 
exceed five per cent. They can then be packed in the 
usual way and shipped. Pasteurization is desirable in 
order to prevent the ravages of worms. 

Commercial growers could well afford to build 
packing houses, tightly constructed and with double 
walls to retain the heat at night. 

Artificial ripening, then, far from being a costly 
and delicate process to worry the grower and eat 
into his profits, is a simple and natural operation 
which will save him many cents on the dollar. For 
most date-growing regions, including California, 
dates can conveniently and economically be ripened 
with the slow method, which requires them merely 
to be picked at the right time and held for a few days 
in a storehouse. But to save the crop if it is hit by 
a rain, or to meet any sudden demand, the commercial 
grower should have the means of ripening his dates 



ARTIFICIAL RIPENING 146 

through rapid incubation, which will require less than 
a day and cost little. 

Finally, in localities with special problems, such 
as the Salt River Valley of Arizona, special means may 
be required, such as the use of carbon dioxid. This will 
slightly increase the cost of handling the crop, but if 
it makes date growing profitable instead of unprofit- 
able, the grower need not complain; and in most 
localities, even in Arizona, it is probable that suitable 
varieties can be ripened without much trouble. 



DISEASES AND PESTS 



CHAPTER XI 

DISEASES AND PESTS 

The date palm, in comparison with most other 
fruit trees, is notably free from disease. The un- 
observant Baghdad peasant, indeed, declares, "The 
palm has but two diseases — thirst and the chirnib, " 
the latter being the palm borer, whose presence is 
too apparent to be overlooked. But in general little 
expense will be incurred by date growers in suppressing 
diseases or pests, and the possibilities of loss in this 
direction are very slight. 

The most troublesome enemies are two scale 
insects, which are to be found throughout the whole 
date growing world, but which nowhere cause wide- 
spread damage. Their discovery, from the view- 
point of modern science, is due to Americans, but they 
were discovered and named by Arab scientists 
centuries ago. 

The Parlatoria scale {Parlatoria blanchardi) 
was introduced into the United States on the first 
importation of offshoots, made in 1889. It is a gray 
insect living on the leaves of the palm, and apparently 
confined to that plant alone; it remains nearly dormant 
during the winter, but is active all summer, at the 
greatest growing period of the palm. It damages the 
tissues, but its greatest injury is in covering a cluster 
of dates and rendering them so unsightly that they 
are unsaleable. 

The following description is condensed from 
Cockerell: To the naked eye, the scales appear as 
small dark gray or black specks, edged with white. 



150 DATEGROWING 

If the scale is lifted by means of a pin or the point of a 
knife, the soft, plump and juicy female, of a rose- 
pink color, is found underneath. She is feebly 
segmented, without legs or any other conspicuous 
organs except a structure at the middle of the anterior 
end, which is the mouth, from which in the living 
insect protrudes the tube through which the sap of 
the plant is sucked. The male scales, which are 
rarely seen, are much narrower and smaller than those 
of the female. About the middle of March the 
female begins to lay eggs, which will be found as 
minute, oval objects underneath the scale at the 
posterior end. Only a few are produced at a time 
and the total number is small as compared with that 
of most scale insects. The larvae begin to hatch 
from the egg, one at a time, about April 1. These 
are very minute creatures, of a pink color, with legs 
and antennae. They crawl restlessly about for some 
time, and then settle down in some place where they 
remain for the rest of their lives. The male, hatch- 
ing from the male scales, impregnates the female and 
dies, his whole life being probably very brief. 

Treatment of the scale by burning was introduced 
by the University of Arizona Experiment Station, 
and has since been followed. All the leaves of an 
infected specimen are cut closely back, and the 
trunk is then gone over with a gasoline blow-torch. 
This eradicates the scale, but the palm requires a 
year or two to recover from the shock and return to 
normal condition; it is, therefore, not a remedy which 
appeals to the commercial date grower. 

In California a cresol dip is now used on all 
offshoots, and it is also used as a spray for older 
palms. This destroys the scale so that no danger 



DISEASES AND PESTS 151 

need be feared from it. Reinfection of a palm that 
has been cleaned up is easily accomplished, however, 
if there are infected palms in the vicinity, for the 
scale is readily carried by birds and animals, or even 
by ants and other insects. 

Eventually a parasite may be found which will 
keep the Parlatoria scale in check. Several California 
lady-birds already prey upon it, while in Algeria it is 
attacked and perforated extensively by a parasite 
which has not yet been made the subject of study.* 

This scale, therefore, can not now be considered 
as even a potential menace to the future of the date 
industry in the United States. 

The Marlatt scale (Phoenicococcus marlatti) 
was possibly introduced to the United States at the 
same time, or at any rate on the following importation 
of offshoots from Africa. The insect is wine-colored, 
from 1 to 13^ mm. long, and secretes a white, waxy 
substance, but not a true scale like the Parlatoria. 
It lives usually at the base of the leaves, inside the 
palm, where it is almost inaccessible, and is most 
active during the winter, coming out at intervals to 
moult. Its life cycle seems to be forty days.t It 
has not yet received the study it deserves, but it 
seems probable that when its habits are known it 

*Scale on palms imported from Algeria by the West India 
Gardens in 1913 was found to be nearly all destroyed. An ant like 
insect similar to the parasite of the melon aphis was observed on the 
palms, and may be the parasite; it could not be captured. 

fFor a more detailed discussion of the technical history of the 
two scales, see "The Scale Inserts of the Date Palm," by T. D. A. 
Cockerell and "The Extermination of Date Palm Scales," by R. H. 
Forbes. Univ. Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bui. No. 56, Tucson, Sept. 23. 
1907. Dr. L. Trabut of Algiers describes the Phoenicococcus in 
Note sur une Maladie du Dattier. Comptes Rendus de TAcademie 
des Sciences, Paris. T. 154, p. 304. Seance du 29 Janvier, 1912. 



15t D A T E G R O W I N G 

can be destroyed by a cresol spray at the time it 
comes into the open to moult. 

When a palm is pulled apart, masses of the 
scale may be seen at the base of each leaf, sometimes 
in such dense clusters as to look like a piece of raw 
beefsteak. The scale doubtless injures the palm to 
a certain extent by draining its vitality, and it is 
possible that some cases of excessively slow growth, 
in offshoots imported before the dip was put into 
use, were due to the presence of large numbers of 
Phoenicococcus. Its chief ravage, however, is rare, 
and appears on the fruit cluster, which is found, when 
it issues from the palm, to be shriveled and dry; it can 
not produce fruits and soon dies. The Algerian 
natives either pull this out bodily or treat it by 
putting a few handfuls of salt and ashes on it; neither 
method is satisfactory. When offshoots are cleaned 
before planting, such cases should never occur, and 
under present conditions it may fairly be said that the 
Marlatt scale is not a menace to the date industry in 
the United States; that it can be easily held in check, 
and can probably be eradicated altogether without 
a great deal of trouble. 

No natural enemy of the Marlatt scale has been 
found. 

At present all date palm offshoots brought into 
the United States must be dipped in a cresol wash 
before they are planted. The period of immersion is 
fifteen minutes, followed by twenty-four hours 
drying and a second immersion of the same length. 
This practically destroys the scale; if a few individuals 
should survive at the bottom of a dense mass, they can 

*As the cresol dip used to combat these scales is a proprietary 
article, its formula has not been made public. 



DISEASES AND PESTS 153 

be killed by spray the following year, when they 
appear in the open to moult. Care should be taken 
to have the dip well emulsified, otherwise it will 
burn the tissues of the plant. Apart from destroying 
the scale, it is a desirable treatment for all offshoots, 
as it removes bacteria which might later cause fer- 
mentation or decay, and gives the young plant the 
best possible start in life. 

For older palms which are infected, the best 
treatment is a thorough spray with the same liquid, 
repeated several times, if necessary, at intervals of 
a month. Various other treatments have been used, 
but none of them gives much promise of value; some 
of them, such as carbon bisulphid, kill the palm much 
more quickly than the scale. 

Date palms in moist regions are .sometimes 
thickly covered with a fungus, Graphiola -phoenicis, 
which injures the leaf seriously by killing parenchy- 
matous cells, displacing the bundles of schlerenchyma 
and rupturing the epidermis and hypoderra. Frank* 
describes it as follows: "The fruit bodies appear as 
scattered, hard, dark swellings about 1.5 mm. across, 
and are sometimes surrounded by a clearer border 
showing the part of the leaf tissue containing the 
mycelium of the fungus. " It is common on the 
coast of Southern California, but as it can not tolerate 
an arid climate it is unknown in the date-growing 
regions of the interior. On date palms in Egypt 
and the West Indies, however, it has been the most 
.serious disease; and it appeared at Baghdad a few 

*Die Pilzparasitaren Krankheiten der Pflanzcn, p. 127. 
Breslau, 1896. For a more technical description see Tubeuf and 
Smith, Diseases of Plants, p. 325. 



154 DATEGROWING 

years ago, causing real damage until it was checked.* 
Fortunately, it yields readily to a spray of Bordeaux 
mixture. 

The coconut palm borer, (Rhyncophorus 
ferrugineus) has killed date palms in India and, to a 
less extent, in Mesopotamia — its presence at Baghdad 
under the name of chirnib has already been mentioned.! 
It works slowly, but appears without warning. The 
Baghdadis know of no remedy for it, but consider 
that the palm is not liable to attack if its trunk is 
kept well cleared of decaying fibre and leaf stalks. 
In India the common remedy is to put a handful of 
salt on the place where the insect is working, as soon 
as its presence is noticed by the dying of some of 
the leaves; at other times the native takes a fine 
iron hook with long handle and works around the 
trunk of the palm until he finds the larva and drags 
him out. 

This borer has not yet been introduced to the 
United States, and there is little danger of its being 
introduced, but the southern states already have two 
representatives of the same genus — namely, R. 
cruentatus and R. palmarum. They are found as 
far west as Texas, and particularly attack the palmetto, 
but will be likely to attack the date palm sooner or 
later. They are not to be feared as a serious enemy. 
When they attack a palmetto grove, the best treat- 

*Wajiyyeh Bey, Director of Agriculture at Baghddd, describes 
the malady in Loghat al Arab, July 1, 1912, p. 17, but does not 
identify it. He suggests lysol or sulphate of copper as the best 
remedy. My own identification is tentative; there are certain differ- 
ences of habit between the Baghdad fungus and Graphioln phoenicis 
of California, and the former may turn out to be something different. 

fl did not see the borer itself at Baghdad, and identify it only 
by descriptions from native friends, and the traces of its destructive 
work. 



DISEASES AND PESTS 166 

ment is to cut down one of the trees; its sap flows out 
and ferments, attracting all the borers in the neighbor- 
hood, who drink themselves to death. But this is 
hardly a satisfactory treatment in a date palm 
plantation. 

Locusts or grasshoppers sometimes visit a palm 
grove with destructive effects. It is reported* that 
when they appeared at Tulare, California, in 1891, 
they left adjoining fields of grain and a variety of 
other tender plants to feed upon the leaves of the 
palm. In Algeria the natives have an idea that they 
prefer the leaves of seedlings to those of the standard 
varieties which are propagated by offshoots. With 
the development of modern methods of fighting them, 
there is little to fear from them as a menace to the 
date industry in the United States. 

Rats sometimes destroy part of the crop, of 
which they seem to be particularly fond. A horde 
of migratory rats which visited the date orchard at 
Tempe, Arizona, a few years ago, caused great 
damage. At Baghdad a squirrel-like rodent has the 
same habit, and the growers protect a choice tree from 
him by putting a collar of tin a foot wide around it, at 
a height of three feet from the ground. This would 
probably be an effective treatment here, and would 
be a permanent protection. 

Gophers are one of the most troublesome pests 
in some regions, and seem particularly fond of off- 
shoots. Poison, traps, and gopher guns can all be 
used. In other districts jackrabbits are to be feared, 
and if one lives near them he should, if possible, 
surround young offshoots with a rabbit-tight fence. 

*Shinn, C. H. "The African Date Palm," in Rep. \gr. Exp. 
Sta., Univ. Cal., 1891-2, p. 144. 



156 DATEGROWING 

In India ants have proved a menace to palms, the 
white ant being particularly dreaded. Bona via says 
the best protection is constant irrigation. In Algeria, 
too, an ant sometimes swarms up the palm and 
destroys the terminal bud; the natives usually fight 
him with fire. I doubt if ants will ever prove a pest 
in the United States. 

Birds, bees, and wasps all attack the ripe fruit if 
it is allowed to hang on the tree after it becomes soft. 
With artificial ripening they will cause little damage; 
under other circumstances a bag of cheap cheese- 
cloth put over each cluster will prove an absolute 
safeguard. 

This exhausts the list of principal diseases and 
pests of the palm,* but there are certain troublesome 
visitors of the stored dates which must be noticed. 
Foremost of these is the fig moth, {Ephestia cautella) 
and the similar Indian-meal moth, (Plodia inter- 
punctella). The former is the one whose traces 
will be found in the imported dates of commerce, as 
well as in Smyrna figs, cacao beans, and other com- 
modities; the latter has proved a particular pest in 
Arizona. Their habits are so much alike that I 
will treat them as one.f 

The small, gray moth (its wing expanse is 14 
to 20 mm.) lays its white eggs on the fruit, or in the 
basal end, if the calyx has been removed. The eggs 
soon turn yellow and sometimes orange, a few days 
before hatching. The larva when first hatched is 

*The effect of excess of alkali might be considered a disease; it 
caases the palm to stop growth and its leaves to shrivel and change 
color. 

fFull details are given in "The Fig Moth," by F. H. Chittenden 
and E. G. Smyth. U. S. Dept. of Agric, Bur. Entomol., Bui. No. 
104. Washington, 1911. 



DISEASES AND PESTS 157 

delicately white, about a millimeter long; it gradually 
reaches a length of 10 mm., and takes on a dirty 
whitish, very pale greenish or very light buff color with, 
an overlay of rather dull pinkish tints which are 
arranged somewhat like longitudinal stripes on the 
back. It crawls about, looking for a place to pupate, 
and usually works into the seed cavity of the date, 
where its excrements will be found. In dates there 
are probably four generations a year. All varieties 
are attacked, but the softest ones by preference. At 
Baghdad the growers have the idea that the dry 
date Zahidi is less attacked than any other. 

The best protection against this pest is to have 
a packing-house that is reasonably insect-proof, and 
to fumigate it at the beginning of the packing season 
with hydrocyanic acid gas or, in the case of small 
inclosures, with bisulphid of carbon. From twenty- 
four to forty-eight hours' exposure is desirable. 

In addition to this, the dates themselves may be 
treated, and certainly should be treated unless it is 
certain that they are to be sold and consumed without 
much delay. In the case of dry dates they could be 
scalded in boiling water without injury. Other dates 
can be pasteurized by dry heat, three hours at a 
temperature of from 180° to 190° F. One of the best 
preventive measures, however, is to see that the calyx, 
or cap to which the stem is attached, at the base of 
the date, is left on the fruit. Fruit matured by the 
quick artificial process will not need to be treated. 

In Arizona a minute beetle, Carpophyllus 
dimidiatus, has caused trouble of the same kind as 
that due to the moths. He is so small that he can 
pass through an ordinary window screen. The 
measures given above will prove equally effective to 



168 DATEGROWING 

destroy him and all other insects that infect the stored 
fruit. 

It is greatly to be desired that every grower 
should make it a point of honor not to put any dates 
on the market that are wormy, or that have not been 
treated in such a manner as to make it reasonably 
certain that worms will not appear. Only by such 
co-operation can the date industry of the United 
States reach the position to which it is entitled. 

In conclusion, let me again call attention to the 
fact that freedom from scale is one of the principal 
merits of seedling palms. Each one starts in life 
clean and sound, and with a little care they can be 
kept so. The grower can then propagate any good 
ones, and introduce the offshoots into any locaHty he 
likes, without fear of hindrance from quarantine laws. 
He cannot do this with imported offshoots until he 
has held them for a year. It is a mistake to suppose, 
however, that a tree is free from scale merely because 
it is a seedling : infestation can easily take place. An 
examination of a number of worthless seedlings, when 
they are removed from the plantation, will give one a 
fairly accurate idea as to whether he has scale or not. 
If he has, he will be subject to quarantine laws, but 
not to any other disabilities, for it has been proved that 
there is no menace to the profits of the date industry, 
in either of the scale insects, under present conditions. 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF 
DATES 




TO INSURE A GOOD CROP 
Arab date growers often have a sheep's skull on a pole in the plantation; 
it averts evil eve and other disasters. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 

The question of variety is as important with dates 
as with other commercial fruits. In America there 
are nearly 400 varieties, from all parts of the date- 
growing world. It is therefore necessary for the 
grower to get an intelligent idea of the characteristics 
of dates of different countries, and the characteristics 
to be sought in those he chooses for his own plantation. 

Algeria and Tunisia have been the most- worked 
field for varieties, up to the present. These regions 
are undoubtedly characterized by a greater number 
of insignificant varieties than any other of the orient: 
the number in the Ziban* alone is sometimes 
estimated as high as six hundred. Of course, most of 
them are nothing more than chance seedlings, which are 
confined to the plantation of one man, and frequently 
to one tree. Such dates have no importance in their own 
country, and it is not to be expected that they could 
ever have in ours. 

Algeria and Tunisia are further characterized 
by the large proportion of their varieties which are 
dry, and yet again by the fact that most of their dry 
dates are hard and of inferior quality, compared with 
the dry dates of other regions. 

Finally, the dates of these two countries are 
prevailingly late. Deglet Nur is one of the latest 

*l'he Ziban (pi. of Zab, oasis) is the region in the northern Sahara 
of Algeria, of which Biskra is the center. It contains 600,000 palms; 
most of the Deglet Nurs and many other good varieties in the United 
States have come from there. South of it is the Oued Righ or Rirh, 
with 1,000,000 palms, the native home and chief center of Deglet Nur. 



162 DATEGROWING 

dates known, and no early ones are to be found there, 
as compared with Arabia or Egypt. In some ways, 
then, Algeria and Tunisia are the least promising of 
any of the great date growing regions, as a source of 
choice varieties for the United States. 

Egypt contains more than 10,000,000 palms, but 
seven-tenths of them are in Upper Egypt, where 
they are scattered over so much territory that they 
are difficult of access. Furthermore, these upper 
Nile dates are practically all dry, a fact that was 
noted even by Pliny,* who ascribes it to the climate. 
Schweinfurth says,t "In the north Nubian Nile 
valley from Berber to Aswan there are only dry 
dates which, however, in flavor, aroma, and sugar 
content, as well as in size, seem to surpass those of 
all other regions." These Nubian dates have not 
yet fruited in the United States. 

In the Egyptian delta, on the other hand, the 
dates are large, soft, and dark in color, while rather 
coarse in flavor. They offer great commercial 
possibilities, and some of them have made excellent 
records in the United States. 

Dates of Oman, on the eastern coast of Arabia, 
are earlier than those of any other region I know; 
half a dozen varieties can be found which ripen in the 
latter half of May, and as many more in June, while 
the principal crop is in August. They are pre- 
vailingly soft. 

To the north of this, from the province of Hasa, 
formerly called Hajar, come some of the best dates of 
Arabia, including the famous Khalaseh. Palgrave, 
the only traveler who has given us a careful account of 

*Hist. Nat., Bk. XIII, ch. 9. 
tGartenflora, loc. cit. 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 163 

the region, says that the variety Rakab, also limited 
to that province, is worthy of the first rank anywhere 
else.* Ever since the Arabic "Epoch of Ignorance" 
(i.e., before Muhammad, early in the sixth century 
A.D.) the dates of this region have been the symbols 
of excellence among Arabs, as they still are: one of 
the commonest proverbs, implying that a man takes 
useless pains, is "Like merchandising dates to 
Hajar" — it is the exact equivalent of our "carrying 
coals to Newcastle."! The dates of Hasa appear to 
be prevailingly soft and early. 

At Busreh, the greatest commercial date-growing 
region of the world, with not less than 8,000,000 
palms closely grouped together on the combined 
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the dates are prevailingly 
soft, of medium size, and fairly early. From a 
commercial point of view they are excellent, but for 
quality hardly equal those of Baghdad. The number 
of varieties cultivated at Busreh is probably smaller 
than in any other important center of culture, for 
commercial requirements have kept the g^'ower 
confined to those dates which would always sell well, 
and that necessitated a uniform pack in which 
miscellaneous varieties, even if intrinsically good, had 
no place. 

The dates of Baghdad are pretty equally divided 
between dry and soft, and they excel in each branch. 
They ripen fairly early, and are of moderate size; but 
the dry dates average much larger than do the dry 

*PaIgrave, W. G. "Narrative of a Year's Journey in Central 
and Eastern Arabia." Vol. II, p. 172. London, 1865. 

fAnother version of the proverb substitutes the name of Khaybar, 
an oasis east of Madina; but Doughty, one of the two Europeans 
who have visited it, does not speak of its dates with any enthusiasm, 
although he admits that they are "not unwholesome." Doughty, 
C. M. Travels in Arabia Dcserta, vol. II, p. 77. Cambridge, 1888. 



164 DATEGROWING 

dates of North Africa, while they are softer and more 
agreeable to the palate as well. AsharasI is probably 
as good a dry date as the world has produced, and 
there are half a dozen soft dates which are as good as 
anything in North Africa, with the possible exception 
of Deglet Nur. 

The dates of the interior of Arabia are not 
sufficiently well known to us to allow of being broadly 
characterized, but from accounts of native acquaint- 
ances I am inclined to think that the dates of Madina, 
the center of culture, average up with those of 
Baghdad. 

The scientific grower in the United States should 
have a variety of sorts, but he must naturally pick 
them out with intelligence. If he cultivates Deglet 
Ntir he needs no more late dates, and should ofiF- 
set it with some of the early ones from the Persian 
Gulf or the Egyptian delta. If he has early varieties 
he should add some of the later ones from North 
Africa. Other things being equal, an early date is 
to be preferred to a late one, because its fruit will get 
on the market before any foreign fruit can arrive and 
lower prices by competition. 

Furthermore, he should not confine himself 
exclusively either to dry dates or soft dates, for, while 
the latter is the type now familiar to the American 
public, the dry sorts rarely fail to make friends, and 
there seems every reason to suppose that a market 
can be made for them without difficulty. On this 
point the grower is as competent to decide for himself 
as is anyone else for him; but it is worth noting that 
when samples of dates were offered to visitors, at an 
exhibition in Coachella Valley, and each was asked to 
express his preference, sixty per cent of them indicated 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 165 

that they liked the dry dates best. It is rare to find 
a person who does not hke dry dates at the first taste, 
and they have the advantage that they can be eaten 
in great quantities without cloying, while many 
cannot eat more than a few soft dates, on account of 
their great sugar content. 

There are some dates — notably Zahidi and 
Tafazwin, — which are either soft or dry, according 
to the way they are handled. If a grower has any 
doubt about the merits of dry dates, he might select 
one of these intermediate varieties, which he could 
sell as a dry date if the market demanded dry dates, 
or as a soft date if that seemed to be preferred. The 
number of dry dates which can, if properly handled, 
be made soft dates, is probably much greater than is 
ordinarily supposed, and it points out forcibly the 
fact that the distinction between the two types is 
not hard and fast, but that a date can cross from one 
side to the other, or remain almost on the dividing 
line, as the grower wills. To make an intermediate 
class of "semi-dry" dates is certainly a useless work, 
for it is difficult enough to make a date stay in one 
of the two great classifications, and an intermediate 
stage merely results in profitless confusion. The 
so-called semi-dry classification has been particularly 
brought into disrepute by attempts to include in it 
such dates as Deglet Nur, which is a typically soft 
date. When this word "semi-dry" is dropped from 
date terminology, much of the present confusion will 
cease. 

One of the most important characteristics for 
the grower to consider, when adding a new variety 
to his plantation, is the keeping quality of the date. 
Some dates are delicious when fresh, but never get 



166 D A T E G R O W I N G 

beyond that stage; they are then called "rutab" 
by the Arabs, and the word is so useful that it may 
have to be borrowed by the English language.* 
Others pass through the rutab stage and then cure 
themselves on the tree into good dates for packing or 
shipping, while a third class, including many dry 
dates, is never fit to eat while soft, but gradually 
dries and sweetens into an eatable fruit. 

The second class is obviously the most profitable, 
other things being equal. The grower can have 
the fresh dates on his table, or sell them in that 
condition if the market is good; otherwise he can let 
them cure and sell them as cured dates, such as are 
ordinarily seen on the market. 

The third class is worth growing if the dates 
themselves are good, for the principal market for 
dates is certain to be always for cured ones, since 
fresh ones will not keep or ship so well. The first 
class, which is good fresh but immediately begins 
to ferment and rot, is to be avoided (except to provide 
fruit for home use) unless it is particularly early. 
In that case — and most of the very early dates are 
rutab dates pure and simple — the precocity is worth 
some sacrifice, and as they wnll come on the market 
when it is most eager for dates, they will always find a 
sale. 

One must regard with distrust any arbitrary 
statements as to the keeping qualities of a variety of 
date, for it necessarily depends on the grower's treat- 
ment of the fruit. One man will make a given date 
keep six months; in the hands of another it will 
spoil in two weeks after it has been taken from the 

*The word means "moist," originally. It is often seen mis- 
spelled retob, rattab, etc. 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 167 

tree. This is particularly true of soft dates like 
Ghars, and the fact that one grower has found that 
itdidnot keep well must not be allowed to condemn it 
without a fair trial. 

Arabs have an interesting classification of dates 
into hot and cold, according to whether a long con- 
tinued diet of them "burns" the stomach or not.* 
This has some importance to a people who eat three 
or four pounds a day for six months at a stretch — 
for the American public it has none. In Mesopotamia, 
Khustawi is universally considered the coldest date 
known; Barban, at Baghdad, is considered the hottest, 
but is valued nevertheless because it ripens so early. 
As a matter of fact, not only most varieties, but most 
choice varieties, are considered hot. Among the cold 
ones are Khadhrawi, Sukkari, Shukkar, Amir Hajj, 
and Sukkar Nabat, while Maktum and Badrahl are 
placed in an intermediate class, neither hot nor cold, 
but satisfactory for general use. Asharasi, Tabirzal, 
Halawi, Zahidi, Barhi, and most of the oilier dales of 
sufficient importance to receive any classification, 
are considered hot. In North Africa Deglet Nur 
and Thtirl would perhaps be considered the hottest, 
and Ghars, Yatimeb and Makantishi the coldest. 

Since dates grow under a wide variety of 
conditions, one might easily classify them as to 
whether they come from a sandy, clayey, or loamy 
soil, but this seems to me not worth while, since it 
has so little bearing on their behavior in America. 
Dates from the heavy adobe silt of Busreli seem to do 
fully as well in a light sandy loam in Coachella Valley 
as they do in their native home. The question of 

*Attention was first called to this classification by C. Niebuhr 
in his "Voyage en Arabie," vol. II. Amsterdam, 1776-80. 



168 DATEGROWING 

sensitiveness to frost cannot be reduced to formula, 
either, since it depends on the variety, and not on the 
temperature of the region from which it comes. In 
the United States, two Algerian palms, or two 
Egyptian palms, or two Arabian palms, standing side 
by side, will often show entirely different resistance. 

The grower who wishes to pick out a new variety 
for his plantation, and to do so intelligently, should 
therefore consider his own needs, and then find a 
variety to fit them, in the index of varieties which 
forms Part II of this book. He will need to decide 
whether he wants an early or a late date, a soft or a 
dry date, a large or a small date, one of dark or one of 
lighter color, one that will be best when fresh or one 
that is pre-eminently a cured date, adapted to shipping 
long distances and keeping many months. Having 
decided what he wants, he will not have much 
difficulty in finding a variety to correspond, from 
the number of excellent dates which have already 
been introduced into the United States from the best 
date-growing regions of the Old World. 

Descriptions of any fruit are always unsatisfac- 
tory, as they do not present a complete picture to the 
mind of the reader, but there are a few points in 
regard to date descriptions which are so misleading 
that the reader should be put on his guard against 
them. First is that characteristic "soft and sticky" 
which is ascribed to many varieties. It is misleading, 
for it depends entirely on the treatment of the fruit. 
A date may be soft and sticky, or it may be so firm 
and clean that it can be handled without soiling white 
kid gloves, yet it may be the same date, with different 
treatment in curing, according to the usage it received 
from different individuals. Most of the Deglet Nurs 




RAVAGES OF PALM BORER 
'^ ' Palms at Baghdad killed by Rhyncophoriis ferrugineus (?); two species 
of same genus occur in America. 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF DATES 189 

sold in the markets of Algeria are disgustingly soft 
and sticky, but under the skilful care of an intelligent 
planter they can be turned out firm and unobjection- 
able. The same thing is true of the Ghars, or any 
other soft date that might be mentioned Let no one, 
then, condemn a date because he has heard it called 
soft and sticky, since it is the packer's fault, not the 
date's. 

Again, the presence of fibre or "rag" about the 
seed is an objectionable characteristic, but it depends 
largely on the stage of maturity at which the date 
was picked, and even, sometimes, on the age of the 
tree. The first Manakhir dates produced in the 
United States were excessively stringy, but this defect 
has been becoming less with each successive harvest. 
Samples of a date described by one man may be 
fibi'ous, while those seen by another observer may be 
perfectly unobjectionable. One should be slow in 
drawing conclusions on this point. 

The flavor and quality of dates is a point on 
which it is dangerous for any man to pronounce 
judgment for others. Of course, some dates can be 
unhesitatingly declared good and others bad, but 
between good dates it is impossible to lay down any 
binding decision. One man likes Deglet Niir better 
than any other date because of its fine flavor; another 
says that he does not like dates anyhow, and prefers 
Deglet Nur to any other because of its lack of flavor. 
Therefore, if one says a date is of good quality, that 
is all that can be expected; the investigator must not 
take any opinion beyond that without a good deal of 
reserve. 

The characteristics of the seed are fairly constant, 
and form one of the most useful means of determining 



170 D A T E G R O W I N G 

the variety of a date, particularly with specimens 
which have been preserved so long as to have changed 
their appearance. Furthermore, some date descrip- 
tions are made from fruit taken directly off the tree 
(which is the proper way) and others from fruit that 
has been cured, and these naturally differ; the seed, 
however, remains as an unchanged factor. Arabs 
have long recognized the value of the seed for this 
purpose, and one of the famous incidents of 
Muhammad's military career relates to an expedition 
which he made to cut off a caravan from Madina. 
After some scouting, the tracks of a caravan were 
crossed, but it was impossible to say whether that 
w^as the one which they sought. Finally an Arab 
dismounted and pursued the track a short distance 
until he came upon some camel dung, in which he 
found a date seed. He examined it a moment and said 
without hesitation, "They have come from Madina." 
The caravan was followed and captured.* 

In addition to the color and general outlines, the 
position of the germ pore and the appearance of the 
ventral channel should be noted. 

Every grower should know the dates of his own 
plantation. If he has any good ones which cannot 
be identified, he should make a careful description 
of them, even if they are seedlings. It will always 
serve as a check on accuracy in the future, when the 
palm may have been propagated widely by means of 
its offshoots. 

*Told in the famous classical encyclopedia of natural history, 
Hayet al Haywanat. 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 



CHAPTER XIII 
PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 

No question of the industry is more interesting 
than the possible or probable profits to be derived; 
yet none is less susceptible of a definite answer to 
which some one may not oppose an objection. The 
profits will be pretty nearly what the grower himself 
makes them. The only guidance that can be given is 
to point out what has been done, here and elsewhere, 
and what conditions may change these results in the 
future. 

In the first place, I assume that the grower has 
a reasonably good piece of land, plenty of water, 
and palms of standard varieties which will produce 
uniform fruit of first quality. I assume, too, that he 
manages his own plantation, that he has given some 
study to the industry, and that he means business. 
He may get a manager who will be satisfactory, but 
he may not, for such men are scarce in any agricul- 
tural enterprise, and are not likely to be attracted by 
the ardent summer climate of a date-growing region. 
They are likely to feel as a newly-arrived Turkish 
governor of Baghdad is alleged to have done. He spent 
the whole of his first day complaining of the heat: 

"But, your excellency," his attendants assured 
him, "we need this heat to ripen the dates." 

"Oh, you do, do you?" he exploded, "I'll not 
suffer on such a flimsy excuse as that. Order all the 
palms cut down at once!" 

Date growing is not a "get-rich-quick scheme," 
but if a man gives to it the attention that would be 



174 DATEGROWING 

necessary to make a success of any other business, he 
should make a success of growing dates. His profits 
will depend first on the size of the crop, and second 
on the price which he receives for it. 

As to the first, the usual estimate in the United 
States is 100 pounds for each adult palm, per year. 
For most varieties, including Deglet Nur and other 
dessert dates, I believe this is a conservative estimate. 
Let us check it up by the experience of other people, 
bearing in mind that a palm should yield more in 
the United States than it would in another country, 
because it should get better care. 

The Algerian government estimates* the annual 
production of a Deglet Nur palm at 40 kg., or 88 
pounds, but declares that this is probably an under- 
estimate. As Deglet Nur regularly bears more 
heavily with us than it does in its original home, 
100 pounds seems a reasonable estimate here. Most 
of the North African varieties bear more heavily 
than this. For Tunis, Masselotf considers Luzi to be 
the shyest bearer, with an annual yield of 55 pounds, 
and Rishti and Hamraya the heaviest, at 220 pounds 
each. The average of 92 varieties which he has in- 
vestigated is 116.5 pounds per tree. 

In Egypt, the English estimate a yield of 172 
pounds per tree,| and yet the trees are set much 
closer together than in the United States. + Egyptian 
varieties bear more heavily than those of some other 

*Les Dattes en Alijerie — Supplemenl au No. 6 du Bulletin de 
I'OfEce du gvt. genl. de I'Algerie, 1910, p. 81. 

fBul. Direc. Agric. et Comm., Tunis, vol. VI, No. 19, Apr., 1901. 

fSir H. Rider Haggard, "An Egyptian Date Farm." London 
Times, Oct. 11. 1912. 

■•"At the great Pyramids Estates near Gizeh they are set twenty- 
two teet apart or eighty-seven to the feddan, or acre. 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 175 

countries; a yield of 250 pounds for Biiket al Hajji 
in Arizona is not considered exceptional. 

In the Sudan the average yield, according to 
official returns,* is 160 pounds. 

Indian palms are so closely crowded, as many as 
139 being set to the acre, that they do not get a 
chance to do well; yet even under these circumstances 
Milne estimates the average yield at from 40 to 120 
pounds, while Bonavia says the average in the district 
of Multan is 160 pounds. 

All of these estimates are the work of trained 
scientific observers. When we turn to the Arabs 
we cannot feel the same confidence, but I have checked 
up their estimates in many districts and believe I 
have reached correct figures. 

At Baghdad, a palm which yields less than 100 
pounds a year is considered a very shy bearer indeed. 
Khustawi, for instance, is so considered; but even 
with the lax Arab methods of cultivation it averages 
from 75 to 125 pounds, while a crop of 300 pounds 
on Zahidi or Barban is quite ordinary. Conditions 
are about the same at Busreh and in Oman; I would 
put 150 pounds as the average yield of a good palm. 

What can be done elsewhere can certainly be 
done in the United States. Any one can find out 
from the growers what their average yields are, and if 
he does so, I am satisfied that he will admit that the 
figure of 100 pounds is very reasonable. 

Of course, exceptional yields can sometimes be 
found. A crop of 500 or 600 pounds is not rare among 
Arabs, and has been closely approached, if not equaled, 
in America. If we could secure some of the religious 

*Report from gov. genl. of Sudan to gov. genl. of Queensland, 
in Queensland Agr. Journal, vol. XXVII, p. 131, Sept. 1911. 



176 DATEGROWING 

atmosphere of Muhammad's home we might do even 
better, for Faqir Amin al Madani says, "we have 
seen and bear witness as to palms, that some palms 
bear, each one, verily, three ardabs* of dates." 

With 100 pounds per tree and 50 trees to the acre 
we have an annual yield of 5000 pounds, or two and 
one-half tons, of dates to the acre. The price at 
which these will sell has been the subject of much 
difference of opinion. At present it is not difficult to 
sell the highest grade of dates, well packed, at $1.00 
or more a pound in California. There is no reason 
why this price should not be maintained for some 
years yet, while home-grown dates are still a novelty. 
It certainly will not be maintained permanently, but 
there will always be a demand for the finest dates, 
packed like confectionei'y, at confectionery prices; 
and even if such a demand is limited, it will probably 
be big enough to offset the quantity of second-grade 
dates which must be sold at 10 or 15 cents a pound. 
As to the bulk of a crop of dates from palms of standard 
varieties, properly handled, my own idea is that the 
price is never likely to fall below 20 cents a pound to 
the grower. This I offer as an average price — there 
will be many culls that must go at a lower figure, but 
there should also be a considerable amount of fancy 
fruit which will bring two or three times the sum 
mentioned. Taking the average at 20 cents a pound 
to the grower, with the conservative estimate of 100 
pounds to a tree and 50 palms to the acre, we may 
calculate on a gross annual return from a well- 
managed plantation of $1000 per acre. 

*As a measure of volume, an ardab is slightly more than five 
bushels. As a measure of weight, it varies according to the commod- 
ity; the ardab of dates is now 320 pounds. 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 177 

This should begin with the fifth year. In the 
third year some varieties should bear enough fruit 
to pay the cost of up-keep, and in the fourth year 
to return a fair profit. From the fifth year they 
will bear well for a century or more. 

This figure takes no account of the production of 
offshoots, which, with choice varieties, promises for 
some time to be fully as valuable a product as dates 
in the United States. Some remarkable records 
have been made already in this respect, but to be 
well within the limit of probability we will assume 
that each tree yields only one offshoot a year, from its 
fifth to its twentieth year of age. Such a production 
should not diminish the yield of dates, while if the 
offshoot is sold at $5 (a price considerably below that 
now current), it will increase the annual gross revenue 
of the plantation by $250 per acre; and it is probable 
that with most varieties two offshoots a year could 
be taken from the palm, without reducing the average 
yield of fruit below 100 pounds. This would make the 
annual gross return of the plantation $1500 per acre. 
I believe that the offshoots alone will be, for some 
years, of sufficient value to pay all expenses of running 
a properly managed plantation in the United States, 
leaving all returns from marketing fruit as clear 
profit. 

This would mean, under the best conditions, 
$1000 a year per acre net profit from a plantation. This 
estimate does not agree with many others that have 
been put forward, and in such a case each man may 
weigh the evidence and judge for himself. Many 
think the price of dates will be much higher than I 
have assumed, and I am far from saying that they 
may not be right — in fact, I know they are right so 



178 DATEGROWING 

far as the immediately succeeding years are concerned. 
Those who get into the date industry at once in the 
right way can make profits that, for a few years at 
least, will be extraordinary. 

Others consider that the expense of running a 
plantation will be so great that the profits will be 
much less than my figures. I readily agree that this 
may be the case with some plantations, for poor 
managers are to be found in any business, and some 
men cannot make a success of any walk of life. But 
knowing as I do that date growing requires less trouble 
than most other industries, and believing that the 
expense of producing dates will be less than that of 
raising almost any other subtropical fruit, I believe that 
the cost of keeping up a plantation will be reasonably 
small. I shall discuss this question in more detail 
later, but I want first to speak of the probable prices 
of dates in the United States, since that is a main factor 
on which the amount of profit depends. 

At present, imported Busreh dates, very badly 
packed, rarely sell at less than ten cents a pound in 
the United States, while better packed ones, and 
Fardh dates, (which are popular because they are firm 
enough to keep their shape, although in flavor they are 
second rate) sell at fifteen or twenty cents a pound. 
The importers could cut this price and still make a 
good profit, for Persian Gulf dates can be laid down in 
New York at less than five cents a pound. But I 
doubt if they can improve the packing to a marked 
degree, and that is as important as the price. Further- 
more, they cannot get these dates on the market 
before the latter half of October, and dates of a similar 
grade grown in the southwestern States can be put 
on the market a month or two earlier than that, 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 179 

while it is devoid of dates, and be sold off before the 
foreign importations arrive. I therefore see no 
reason why the competition of imported Persian Gulf 
fruit should lower the price of an earlier and more 
attractive local product. 

The French in Algeria can put out Deglet Nurs, 
however, that are packed in an attractive manner, 
and owing to cheaper labor can probably do so more 
cheaply than we can. At present choice dates, well 
packed, sell at twenty and twenty-five cents a pound in 
France and Algeria, and as the demand is steady the 
price will hardly go lower than this. They might 
conceivably interfere with the sale of American dessert 
dates at fancy prices, such as $1.00 a pound, but 
their competition can hardly be considered if twenty- 
five or thirty cents a pound retail is taken as the 
basis for calculations. 

Furthermore, the market for fresh dates will 
always be a local monopoly, and I believe it will be 
a profitable one, for the fresh date is not too perishable 
to be shipped, and is liked by every one who tastes it. 

The total annual consumption of dates in the 
United States is now in the neighborhood of 32,000,000 
pounds a year, or something like five ounces per 
person per year — a ridiculously small figure. The 
great food value of the date allows every one to 
purchase it as an integral part of the family diet — 
not as a luxury or dessert, but with the feeling that it 
is a part of his nourishment. Furthermore, the 
American public now scarcely knows the value of 
the date in any form except raw, and the teaching of 
methods of cooking it will increase the consumption. 
So far as the factor of supply and demand goes, I believe 
that the consumption of dates will far exceed the 



180 DATEGROWING 

production in America for many years, and that 
locally-grown dates will hardly find competitors in 
the imported fruit. As people come to know what 
delicious, clean, fresh, home-grown dates are, the 
price may be expected steadily to rise rather than fall, 
no matter how fast the production increases in 
California and Arizona. 

These are the reasons which lead me to believe 
that an estimate of twenty cents a pound gross 
return to the grower is conservative. Others may 
figure on a different basis or, figuring on the same 
basis, arrive at a different conclusion. Any one 
interested in the industry can consider the facts and 
from them form his own estimate. 

To return to the probable expense of running a 
date plantation: it should not be large, as compared 
with the expense of other agricultural enterprises. 
The difference between good and bad management 
is so great that one can hardly quote definite figures, 
but it may be pointed out that the amount of labor is 
not great at any time of year, and that even during 
the picking of the crop fewer men will be needed than 
with many agricultural staples. If the owner is his 
own manager he will have all the profits for himself, so 
there is certainly a great future in the industry for 
men who own plantations of ten or fifteen acres. 
One man should be able to keep up such a plantation 
alone, at all times of the year except during the crop 
picking season. If a manager has to be hired the 
expense will be greatly increased, unless on a large 
estate, for only a thoroughly competent man can be 
considered. In a favorable situation such as 
Coachella or Imperial Valley the expense of picking 
the crop is not great; if it is ripened by the slow 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 181 

artificial method the cost will be nothing save that of 
the little labor required; and the expense involved in 
marketing is less than that with most fruits, because 
the date is not perishable, does not need to be kept 
in iced cars or cold storage,* and can always be held 
for a favorable market. As the industry is new, 
there is naturally much yet to be learned about 
marketing dates to the best advantage, but that is a 
problem which Americans are well able to handle, 
and when date-growers have as efficient a co-operative 
organization as the orange-growers of California, the 
percentage of profit to the owner will be very high. 

Perhaps the safest and most helpful way to 
consider the cost will be to make a comparison with 
the cost of lemon- growing in this state. Any other 
industry would do, but I take the lemon growers 
because information regarding their operations has 
been collected with particular care. 

Citrus fruit lands with water are valued at from 
$400 to $500 per acre. Date lands with water can 
be had for much less. The expense of bringing a 
lemon grove into bearing, including the cost of land 
and water, is from $750 to $1200 an acre. The cost 
of clearing, grading, and preparing the land for planting 
may vary from $10 to $15 an acre, of irrigation 
ditches and flumes from $15 to $50 per acre, 
and of the trees and planting from $75 to $150 per 
acre. The annual care of the grove is from $30 
to $100 per acre up to five years of age. These 
estimates should all be sufficient to cover the expenses 
of a date plantation, with the exception of that of 
cost of trees. Owing to the rarity of offshoots of the 
choicest varieties one must allow $300 an acre for 

*In fact, it quickly moulds if so stored. 



182 DATEGROWING 

the palms. In the end this will be counterbalanced 
by the fact that the life of a date plantation is far 
longer than that of a lemon grove, and the loss of 
five per cent to ten per cent of the trees yearly, which 
is allowed by citrus men, need not be considered by 
date growers. 

Lemon groves are plowed in the spring both ways, 
and are cultivated between the irrigations. The 
cost of plowing and cultivating averages about $35 
per acre each year. The groves are irrigated every 
month or six weeks from spring until fall; the cost 
of water averages $15 per acre, and the labor of 
applying it $1.00 per acre. As dates require more 
water, these figures will probably not be high enough 
for the palm plantation. 

Lemon groves are heavily fertilized with manure 
or chemical fertilizers, or with l)oth, the growers 
using from $20 to $120 worth of fertilizer per acre 
per year. Here the date grower will make a great 
saving. 

It costs $15 per acre yearly to prune citrus trees. 
It should cost less than one-third as much to trim 
the palms, and this expense will be practically 
negligible until the i)lantation lias reached full 
bearing. 

Fumigation and spraying of citrus groves costs 
from $5 to $10 per acre, often mucli more, and uuist 
be regularly done, while the palm plantation, if 
properly started, should never require expense of this 
kind. 

In most districts citrus trees have to be protected 
against frost during winter months. Smudging costs 
about $20 per acre per year. Date growers will 
never have this expense. 



PROFITS OF DATE GROWING 183 

With all these expenses the cost of growing each 
crop of lemons up to the time of harvesting is approxi- 
mately $197 per acre. The upkeep of a date 
plantation should be well below this. Expense of 
handling the crop should be much less than with 
citrus fruits, because of the saving of icing charges and 
long railway hauls, since all dates grown can un- 
doubtedly be marketed in the west for many years. 

If we take cost of land and water and expense 
of bringing a lemon grove into bearing as $1000 per 
acre, which is veiy near the average, we can safely 
assume that the expense of a date plantation will be 
less, since land is cheaper and labor little, if any, 
higher, while the additional cost of trees to the date 
grower is offset by the saving in many items of 
cultivation. It should be noticed, too, that this 
estimate for lemon groves, covering five years, in- 
cludes the pay of a foreman. The date-gi-ower who 
manages his own plantation will save this, while 
he should be getting considerable returns from his 
dates before the fifth .year, and may also grow a 
secondary crop. If we say, then, that $1000 an acre 
is an adequate investment for land, water, and the 
expense of bringing a date plantation into bearing, 
we should be well within the truth. 

The annual upkeep of a lemon plantation, no I. 
including picking or marketing the crop, is about $200 
per acre. Even with the added water and cultivation 
needed, annual upkeep of a date plantation should 
be less than this, in view of the great saving which 
the date grower makes in fertilizing, fumigation and 
frost protection. 

When it comes to picking and marketing the crop 
the date grower has a great advantage, for he is not 



184 DATEGROWING 

dealing with a perishable commodity like citrus 
fruits. It costs the lemon grower more than $300 
per acre to handle the crop; the cost of picking and 
marketing 5000 pounds of dates per acre ought to be 
considerably less than this.* 

We find, then, that the date grower has the 
advantage of the citrus grower so far as cost of 
production is concerned, while his profits from the 
sale of fruit are much greater. There is every reason 
to believe that the grower can bring a date plantation 
into bearing, including the cost of land and water, 
for not more than $1000 an acre, and, after it is in 
bearing, pay the entire expense of upkeep, for some 
years at least, by the value of his offshoots, leaving 
all the income from the fruit as profit; and this net 
income ought to be, in a well-managed plantation of 
the best varieties, not less than $1000 per acre per 
year. For the first few years, while fancy prices 
prevail, the grower may secure a much larger annual 
net return if he is keen enough to grasp the op- 
portunities. And since he may pay a large part of the 
expense of bringing his plantation into bearing by 
growing a subsidiary crop, we may well conclude 
that there are few agricultural opportunities today 
more attractive than that presented by the cult- 
ure of the date palm. 

*A11 the information regarding the citrus industry is from Bui. 
No. 9 of the Citrus Protective League of Cal., Los Angeles, Jan., 
1913: "The California Lemon Industry." by G. Harold Powell and 
F. O. Wallschlaeger. 




< -a 
o t- 

< S) 

Q « 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 



CHAPTER XIV 

ARAB U.SES OF THE DATE 

As a general rule the Arab eats his dates raw, 
out of hand, just as the American does. In this 
way he can dispose of astonishing quantities day 
after day : — the explorer Nachtigal tells of natives who 
often ate six pounds between sunrise and sunset, in 
Tripolitania, and thousands of Arabs, whose principal 
food during half the year is dates, consume several 
pounds a day regularly throughout their lives, and 
are among the healthiest and most vigorous members 
of the human race.* It will usually be found, when 
a traveler reports Arabs suffering from too many 
dates, that their troubles are due solely to the fact 
that they eat the fruit when it is half ripe, in which 
case it tastes something like a green persimmon. It 
is not dates, but tannin and free organic acids that 
are to blame in these rare instances. 

Nevertheless, it is natural that the Arab should 
seek to vary this diet in such a way as to make it 
less monotonous, and to add to it the protein element 
which the date lacks. In the Sahara, ever since 
the middle ages, there has been in some regions a 
superstitious idea that the meat of dogs was the ideal 
Hccompaniment to a diet of dates, and dogs are even 
today fattened for food purposes in parts of Morocco 
and Tunis and in the Ziban of Algeria. Such a habit 
could hardly have originated, or persisted, among a 

*Date growers can not expect the per capita consumption in 
America to reach such a figure. Nevertheless, they tell a story in 
Cairo of a young American woman who ate seventy-five dates as 
the finish of a hearty diimer! 



188 DATEGROWING 

more purely Arab race, for the dog is to the orthodox 
Muslim an unclean animal, and Muhammadan 
geographers notice this habit with unconcealed 
scorn.* Even today the gamins of Biskra take all 
the conceit out of a pompous visitor from the Zab 
by a piece of doggerel which they shout at him in the 
street, taunting him with the loathsome nature of 
his diet. 

On the authority of Muhammad, cucumbers are 
also considered a particularly good accompaniment 
for dates. The prophet is quoted in the Traditions 
as saying, "the cold of the one counterbalances the 
heat of the other and the heat of the one diminishes the 
cold of the other," a piece of absurdity typical of 
popular Arab medical lore.t As a matter of fact, the 
only advantage cucumbers might have would be to 
dilute the sugar in the dates, which water would do 
just as well. Probably the universal habit of drinking 
milk with dates is principally due to this same need — 
anyone who eats a lot of sugar will realize that nature 
calls for a drink. Milk has also the advantage of 
adding a little fat and protein to the dates and making 
a well-balanced diet; accordingly it will be found 
that most of the Arab methods of using the fruit are 
based on this principle. 

The simplest way, and one of the most popular 
in the Sahara, is to split the fruit, remove the seed, 
and then fill the cavity with a chunk of butter; this 
is usually done at the table as they are eaten. Of 
course the butter for this purpose must be unsalted. 
This manner of eating the date has been popular 

*Cf. Jean Leon, Descr. de I'Afrique, p. 40. Lyons, 1556. 

tJal41 al Din Abd a! Rahman Muhamnaad al SujTitf (c. 1475 
A. D.), tr. by Pharaon, Paris, 1856. 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 189 

throughout the Arabic world for centuries, so that it 
has even been recognized by the poets; a well-known 
stanza contains the lines: 

"I placed some butter upon a date, 
And both the food and the condiment 
were rendered delicious. " 

At Baghdad and in other regions where buffalo 
cream is available, it is allowed to clot thickly, and 
used as a substitute for butter. 

The names of dishes made in this manner are 
numerous, and not worth repeating here, but one of 
them is too famous in literature to be ignored — it is 
called khabis, and its invention is ascribed to the 
time of Muhammad. His friend 'Uthnian b. Affar 
is named as the inventor; it appears to have consisted 
of dates, butter, and honey, and the merit claimed for 
it is that inferior dates taste as good as the choicest 
when prepared with these accompaniments. When 
the amateur chef had concocted this dish he carried 
it to Muhammad, who sampled it and, lifting up his 
hands, cried, "O God, set aside they best favors and 
accord them to 'Uthman!" The word khabis 
has accordingly taken on the figurative meaning of 
"complete happiness." 

Sour or curdled milk in various forms is a constant 
accompaniment of dates, and even to an occidental 
palate they are delicious with cottage cheese or 
smierkase. Finally, fresh milk, especially that of 
camels, is considered a particularly fitting drink 
after a meal of dates; it cools the stomach and "re- 
freshes" the partly-digested fruit. 

Dates can be eaten raw in various other 

*D')scribed in the Qamus and in a manuscript of Al Suy<iti, 
quoted by De Sacy. 



190 D A T E G R O W I N G 

combinations, however; in the Sindh desert of India 
onions are considered the proper accompamment. 
When the dates ripen, everyone hastens to eat as many 
as he can hold; when he is replete he eats a raw onion, 
and is then able to start on dates again. 

In districts where locusts or grasshoppers are 
obtainable, these insects are roasted and pounded to 
a paste together with fresh dates. The date paste 
known as madquqeh is also a standard article through- 
out the orient; it is merely seeded dates pounded up 
with sesame oil, and is commonly used as a spreading 
for the tasteless native bread. 

These combinations are all made with uncooked 
dates, but there are plenty of ways in which the fruit 
can be cooked. Probably the best is a plain fry in 
plenty of butter; the dates for this purpose should be 
soft, and great care is needed to keep them from 
burning; but if properly prepared they rarely fail to 
please an American palate. Fresh dates are also 
baked in the oven, sometimes being basted with 
butter. They are particularly popular with American 
missionaries in Egypt when cooked in this fashion. 
Another standard Arab recipe is to chop up the dates 
and boil them in milk, often with the addition of 
chopped onions and a flour thickening. One of the 
specialties of Baghdad cooks is fried dates and eggs, 
particularly in the form of an omelet. A stew of 
dates with rice and milk is considered most appropriate 
for women at childbirth. In the Sahara dates are 
added to meat soups and stews, but the result does 
not commend itself to occidental tastes. The locally 
famous " Date Sweet " of the Persian Gulf region, which 
is made at home but never sold, consists of dates ground 
very fine, fried in oil, mixed with flour boiled in milk, 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 191 

and then made into cakes. The Persian-Indian 
preparation called bhugrian consists of ripe dates 
boiled and then fried in oil; it has the merit of keeping 
a year or more. 

Often dates are picked just before they are ripe, 
and pickled in vinegar, when they much resemble 
pickled walnuts. 

The fruit lends itself particularly well to the 
manufacture of preserves and jams. One of the 
best is the mu 'asal of the Persian gulf, which is made 
by American missionaries at Busreh as follows: 
Remove the seeds from dates and replace them with 
walnut meats. Boil down some date syrup (any 
other good syrup would do), add sesame seeds to 
taste, and a little rose water for aroma; boil until 
thick, add the dates, put over the fire and let it come 
to a boil again; then put into tins or glass jars. 

Here is the Syrian method of preserving dates* 
(it is almost identical with that widely used in Egypt) : 
Take the largest dates obtainable, preferably before 
they are entirely ripe; peel them with a sharp knife, 
put them in a pot, add a little more than enough water 
to cover them, boil until they are soft; then slip the 
seeds out and put an almond or pistachio, with a 
clove, in the cavity; boil the dates in syrup with a 
little lemon peel until of the proper consistency; 
take them oflF the fire and let them stand over night; 
then bring to a boil again and put into glass or glazed 
jars. 

Sometimes choice dates are preserved without 
cooking, as in the khurma shirah of Persia, for which 
the choicest dates are dried in the sun on mats, 

*From Khalil al Nora's cook-book, "A Tax on the Eyes for the 
Comfort of Stomachs," Bayrlit, 1895. 



192 DATEGROWING 

protected from the dew at night, until they are cured. 
Then they are washed with diluted date syrup, to 
free them from dust, and after draining are mixed 
with sesame, powdered ginger, walnut kernels, and 
other spices. They are packed by pressing in jars, the 
jars being filled with thick date syrup and made airtight. 

This date syrup is itself one of the most valuable 
by-products of the date, and the activity in Arab 
kitchens during the date harvest, when the syrup is 
being prepared for the coming year, resembles that 
during fruit-canning time in other countries. In 
the best homes of Baghdad it is made as follows: 
Soft, seeded dates of the juiciest varieties are placed 
in a large pot and allowed to soak in water for a day 
or two, then boiled thoroughly. The dates are 
next placed in a closely woven basket to which heavy 
pressure is applied, and the juice drips into the pot 
containing the syrup resulting from their boiling. The 
pot is then allowed to stand in the sun for a week, until 
the syrup is as thick as honey, when it is ready for 
use. It sells in the market in winter at ten cents a 
quart. 

Not only the fruit but its seeds as well are used 
in cookery, particularly during })eriods of scarcity. 
They may be soaked in water until soft, then pounded 
and boiled with milk; but more commonly they are 
made into bread, for which the old writers give many 
recipes that look somewhat dubious, particularly 
when they call for the addition of drugs and chemicals. 
The simplest is that given by Ibn Awam:* Pound 
the seeds in a mortar, put them in a jar of brine and 
let them stand for several days. Add a little vinegar 

*The Book of Agriculture, ch. XXIX, art. 13. He gives it on 
the authority of Quthaml, who had it from Jambushad. 




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ARAB USES OF THE DATE 193 

and simmer until they become a paste, then knead it up 
and boil it. The paste must be well salted, and not 
allowed to cool off at any time while it is being cooked. 
When the mass has become absolutely soft, which 
will require several days of simmering, work it up in 
fresh water to eliminate the vinegar and salt, then dry 
the paste, grind it into flour, and make pancakes of it. 

More frequently, however, the seeds are used for 
animal fodder, either soaked or not. In many parts 
of the Persian Gulf region the standard ration for milk 
cows consists of date seeds and fish heads. In India 
half a century ago a company was organized which 
manufactured a palatable coffee substitute from date 
seeds, but it seems never to have met with popular 
favor. 

The spathe of the palm (usually the male) is 
sometimes cut before it has opened, and ground up 
to make bread, while the male blossoms, when fully 
formed but before the spathe has opened, are a 
delicacy in all parts of the orient, either raw or as 
salad with lemon juice. They are supposed to have 
an aphrodisiacal quality. Sometimes they are boiled 
with lemon rind. In times of scarcity even the 
younger leaves of the palm are boiled for a salad, while 
the terminal bud is always a delicacy, raw, boiled, or 
ground into a meal. 

The medicinal uses of the date would fill a book, 
for the empiricists of the Arab profession can see 
medicinal qualities in anything. This use of dates goes 
back to prehistoric times: two thousand years ago 
Pliny could speak* of their employment by "the 
ancients" to recruit the strength and allay the thirst 
of a patient. The authorities differ considerably 

*Hist. Nat., Book XXII. ch. 51. 



194 DATEGROWING 

in their opinions as to the exact merits of the fruit, 
but the statement of Daud al Dantaki is as good as 
any for a specimen. He declares,* "Dates are hot 
to the second degree, dry to the first. They cut 
short a persistent cough or pain in the chest, and 
banish throat trouble, particularly if eaten first thing 
in the morning. They are useful cooked, or preserved 
in syrup; they fortify the body and strengthen the 
blood and cure pains in the back and invigorate the 
loins when they are atrophied; and if boiled in milk 
and drunk they cut short fever and ague; they also 
cure foul mouth and, taken in milk, are a tonic for the 
appetite. Dates ought to be given to a sedentary 
patient with great caution, and not at all in hot 
weather; in order to be useful they should be eaten 
only by one whose blood flows freely, and who has no 
tendency to atrabiliousness. In other cases they 
would produce itch, bad teeth, diseases of the gums, 
and general languor and sleeplessness. " 

Dates pounded up with the leaves of Juniperus 
occidentalis are considered by the belles of Algeria 
to be particularly fattening. 

Without going into the subject at greater length, 
I can say truthfully that, if one believes Arabic au- 
thorities, there is practically no ill which cannot be 
cured by one of the products of the date palm. On 
the other hand, there are only a few that may not be 
caused by them, if we believe other empiricists. 
Ibn Baytar is perhaps the most pessimistic of writers, 
and he quotesf a long list of authorities to show the 

*Shaykh Ddud al D.antaki, the Blind. The Book of Medicinal 
Drinks and Collection of Wonders (MS. in my possession), ch. 7. 
He professes to base his work on that of "The wise, the experienced, 
the wonderful, the one and only Jallnus," i. e., Galen. 

flbn Baytdr, Treatise on Simples, tr. by Dr. J. Sontheimer. 
Stuttgart. 1840. 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 195 

dangers, real or imaginary, arising from dates. Eaten 
before they are ripe they cause skin eruptions, fever, 
headaches, constipation, stomach and bowel troubles, 
and injury to the gums. When ripe and fresh they 
are more dangerous than when cured; but he admits 
that they may be valuable to thin thick blood, and 
closes with the caution that persons with hot tem- 
peraments should always eat their dates w^th vinegar, 
fermented honey, fresh greens, sour milk, or acid 
pomegranates. To recover from such an attack we 
shall have to fall back once more on Muhammad, 
who advised his followers to eat fresh and cured dates 
together whenever they could, in order to thwart the 
devil, because that personage has said: "Man will re- 
main as long as he mingles the new with the old." 
This is related by Abd al Rizzaq,* who adds com- 
fortingly that "the sap of palm leaves is a sure 
remedy for nervousness, kidney trouble, and putrid 
wounds; it calms the effervescence of the blood and 
is a tonic for the stomach." 

Although the Muslim's religion prohibits the 
manufacture of intoxicating drinks, this law has 
never been strictly regarded, so the Arab not only 
makes a variety of "soft" beverages from the palm, 
but several that are decidedly alcoholic and others 
which are on the dividing line. The last are popular, 
for if it is granted that their use is lawful when they are 
newly made, one may drink them when they begin 
to ferment and yet ease his conscience by refusing to 
recognize that such a process is taking place — a 
moral and mental phenomenon that is familiar enough 
in the case of hard cider in the Occident. Thus palm 

*Abd al Rizzaq al Jazaid, "The Relation of Enigmas" Cseven- 
teenth or eighteenth century A. D.). Tr. by Dr. Lucien Lederc. 
Paris, 1874. 



196 DATEGROWING 

wine will be consumed by a man who gets roaring 
drunk on it and yet can make himself think that he 
is keeping within the letter of the law. 

The palm wine or laqmi* has always been a 
specialty of North Africa, where its manufacture 
assumes really large proportions, to the point of 
having recently been forbidden in most parts of Algeria 
and in Tripolitania, because of the damage which 
owners were doing their palms in their endeavor to 
keep themselves provided with the beverage. The 
season of its manufacture is from May to October and 
the method is as follows: 

A V-shaped incision is made in the terminal bud 
and an earthenware jar fastened under it. This is 
usually emptied morning and evening. The flow 
will continue for three months; sometimes four or five 
quarts will be produced in a single night. The yield 
varies from day to day ; some varieties also give more 
than others. In any event, the tree will produce no 
fruit for several years afterward; but if it is allowed to 
recuperate for such a length of time it can then be 
tapped again. The second tapping usually kills it, 
although it may undergo a half a dozen. 

The sap closely resembles coconut milk in flavor, 
but is a little sweeter. It quickly begins to ferment, 
the process being hastened by the dirty condition of 
the vessels in which it is usually kept; and if allowed 
to stand in the sun for a day or two, a quart is sufficient 
to start several fights. It is also made intoxicating 
by the addition of seeds of the rue (Ruta graveolens) .\ 

*It is often called lagbi: the name appears to mean nothing 
more than "swallows" or "mouthfuls." 

fThis common plant, known to the Arabs as harmal, is one of 
the most valued in their materia medica; Muhammad declared that 
it cured seventy-two diseases and the physicians have ever since 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 197 

The orthodox Keeley cure consists in mixing a little 
crow's blood with the wine; the consumer, it is de- 
clared, will never want to touch another drop. But 
the French authorities in North Africa have found 
a light fine or a few days in jail more effective. 

Formerly the industry was licensed in Tripoli, 
each tree tapped paying a tax of $4 per year, and it 
was calculated that the annual income from this 
source to the government was more than $15,000, 
while the natives made from fifty to sixty cents per day 
from each tree.* 

Sometimes whole oases have been subjected to 
this process, when the well which supplied them had 
dried up. In such cases it is a legitimate operation, 
but it is not likely to become an established industry 
in the United States, although it offers an interesting 
way of getting rid of worthless seedlings. 

Next to this, the most important beverage made 
from the date is arrak,t which keeps five distilleries 
busy in Baghdad alone, and the consumption of which 
is getting a strong, although concealed, hold on a large 
part of the Muhammadan population. Dry dates 
are the best for this purpose; in Baghdad Zahidi and 
in Egypt IbrahimI get the preference. At Baghdad 
the product is often made from dates and grapes in 
equal parts, and always in the simplest manner. The 
fruit is allowed to ferment in water, and then double 
distilled, sugar and aromatics being added. It is 
interesting to note that wormy dates are reported to 

been trying to find out which they are. The commonest use in the 
Sahara is as a paste to rid the head of undesirable citizens. 

*See report of Cons. gen. Lago in Brit. Foreign Office Rep., 
June, 1900. 

fProperly araq; the name means simply "sweat", alluding to 
the condensation of vapor when it is distilled. 



198 DATEGROWING 

yield twenty per cent more liquor than fresh and sound 
ones. The five stills at Baghdad, all owned by Jews, 
turn out a total of 500,000 litres per year, which is 
worth from twenty to thirty cents per litre. The 
effects on those who drink it are said to be practically 
the same as those of absinthe.* 

Laqml is sometimes distilled, furnishing an 
intoxicant which much resembles arrak. 

The beverage called nabidh has already been 
mentioned in Chapter I; it is made by pouring water 
on macerated dates and letting it stand over night, 
and is rarely relished by Europeans. It remains 
popular in Arabia and Egypt; in other date growing 
regions it is hardly known. 

A rather palatable drink is made by macerating 
dates in milk, which is sometimes, but not always, 
boiled. It goes by various names in different regions, 
and according to the details of manufacture; it is of 
course taken when quite fresh and is lawful to the 
Muslim. 

A kind of beer is sometimes made with dates and 
barley, to which yeast is added. It is considered 
lawful if it is not allowed to ferment beyond the 
point of slight acidity. 

This includes, I believe, all the types of beverage 
made from the date; but the list of varieties, as given 
by Arab authors, is long, the same drink being given 
many different names, as the method of its manu- 
facture is slightly varied or the locality changed. 
And now that I have covered the subject of drinks, 
as such, let me return for a moment to laqmi to note 
a few unappetizing details of scientific interest. 

*A good account of the arrak industry at Baghdddis givenby 
G. Ghanimeh in AI Machricj, No. 11, p. 480, Bayrut. June 1, 1907. 



ARAB USES OF THE DATE 199 

Herodotus mentions* that the ancient Egyptians 
used this beverage for washing out the ventral cavity 
of an intended mummy; and Ibn Awam declares 
that, spiced with myrtle and cummin, it is unequaled 
for ridding the hen roost of lice. 1 may add, finally, 
that lately it has been advertised in Europe as a 
cure for tuberculosis. 

♦Herodotus (c. 450 B. C), Book II, chapter 86. 




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FOOD VALUE OF THE DATE 



CHAPTER XV 

FOOD VALUE OF THE DATE 
by Charles L. Bennett, M. D. 

In the arid regions of the old world dates have 
always been an essential in the dietary, and in some 
parts have been used even to a greater extent than 
bread and potatoes here. In fact, without dates much 
of the world's history would have been differently 
written unless a substitute, as effective as the date, 
could have been found for the tribes of desert regions. 
The date made their activities possible. 

Owing to its compact form and almost total avail- 
ability as food the date is a natural tabloid form of 
nourishment, and some kinds even outstrip the much 
vaunted pre-digested foods. These latter dates 
contain sugar in a form immediately available by 
the body through simple absorption without being 
subjected to the digestion that ordinary sugar under- 
goes. 

So it is that the Persian, the Arab, and the North 
African have always found the date a great boon and 
ideal food, with only suflBcient padding to favor 
intestinal function, carrying predigested material, 
ferments that aided its own digestion, and an attractive 
flavor. The drier dates kept well on long journeys 
and never cloyed the appetite. An active hard 
working desert dweller ate pounds of them a day; 
they formed almost his sole food for long periods, and 
often for many months his only addition to the date 
diet was an occasional small amount of meat, milk, 
or rice. 



204 DATEGROWING 

Dates are at once an enjoyable confection and a 
substantial energy producer. They really contain all 
the elements that a balanced diet calls for, protein, 
fats, salts, and carbohydrates, and all in available 
form for the human system. Proteins form the 
pivotal point or central building block in the animal 
cell. The date does not contain suflBcient protein 
to be a tissue builder. But the cell nucleus must 
surround itself with energy producers, with phys- 
iological fuel, and here the date comes in with its 
seventy to ninety per cent, carbohydrate content. 

One pound of dates has a calorie value of 1,275, 
a calorie being the physiological heat unit or unit of 
potential. 

A workman of ordinary build and weight at 
ordinary hard labor will require 3000 calories per day 
of fuel or food energy. It can readily be seen how 
far two or three pounds of dates per day will go 
toward supplying, the human machinery with fuel 
to preserve the temperature equilibrium and give 
the energy which finds expression in muscular activity. 

According to the Atwater bulletin on food 
composition issued by the United States department 
of agriculture, the dried date shows the following 
percentage composition; 

Carbohydrates 70 . 6 

Protein 1.9 

Fat 2.5 

Water 13.8 

Ash (mineral salts) 1.2 

Refuse (fibre) 10.0 

100.0 



FOOD VALUE OF THE DATE 205 

This analysis may be taken as a fair average for 
dates. Some fruit will show as high as ninety per 
cent, carbohydrates, others lower than the percentage 
given in the analysis. The carbohydrates are made 
up almost wholly of sugars of the hexose or six carbon 
series, a small residuum being pectin bodies of the 
pentose or five carbon series. 

The pectin bodies belong to the gums, and lead 
to the jellying of the fresh cooked juice of the date or of 
the sap from the plant. The hexose group of carbo- 
hydrates, or sugars, are the principal food element, and 
dates have been classified into two great groups, 
according as they contain relatively large amounts of 
cane sugar or invert sugar. As far as is known all 
dates are originally cane sugar carriers, but some 
varieties develop in relatively large quantities the 
ferment in vertase, which "inverts" the cane sugar, 
the invert sugar being a mixture in molecular pro- 
portions of levulose and dextrose, fruit sugar and 
grape sugar respectively. The latter varieties form 
typical predigested foods, as the molecules of invert 
sugar can be absorbed directly and stored by . the 
animal economy without any preliminary digestion, 
the invertase performing the function of a similarly 
acting ferment in the intestinal tract. 

The protein and fat content, though small, is in a 
readily available form, the protein as a builder and 
the fat as a fuel. A man who includes two pounds of 
dates as the bulk of a day's ration will not require much 
additional protein, the physiological requirement 
being approximately one gram per kilo of body weight 
per day. In fact, a pure date dietary meets the require- 
ment of many Arabs in every day activities for long 
periods at a time, without the addition of any other food. 



^ 



206 D A T E G R O W I N G 

Lost in the technicalities of the above analysis 
are the aromatic substances that give the date its 
peculiar flavor, apart from sweetness due to sugar. 
These aromatic bodies are rather easily volatilized, 
and in the treatment of dates for market care must 
be taken not to drive out the aroma, as the date then 
loses its seductive flavor. 

The chemical composition of the date at that 
stage of complete maturity known as ripening depends 
on the activity of various ferments. These ferments 
are held in colloidal form within the cell protoplasm. 
When ripening begins they lose their colloidal charac- 
ter and can then pass through the cell surface, diffusing 
through the substance of the fruit and beginning 
those changes that result in ripeness. Simultaneously 
the tannic acid of the date becomes insoluble, and the 
date loses the puckering taste characterizing the 
green fruit. Just what these changes are chemically 
is not known, but experiments have proved that 
beyond a certain stage of maturity the ripening of the 
date is not necessarily vitalistic but due to the enzymes 
or ferments liberated by the cells. In fact, ripening 
may be initiated naturally by an agonal period pre- 
ceding the death of the cell. At any rate, at maturity 
the date is filled with all the potentials and materials 
for ripening ; it can be removed from the tree and very 
often ripened to better advantage artificially. The 
"artificial" part of ripening a date simply consists 
in giving the fruit the best possible environment in 
which to activate or quicken the work of its enzymes. 

When the date accumulates fifty per cent, or 
more of dry matter it begins to ripen. It grows 
darker in color, softer, translucent, loses its as- 
tringency owing to precipitation of its tannin, becomes 



FOOD VALUE OF THE DATE 207 

sweet, and develops the peculiar aroma so attractive 
to the palate. The cane-sugar are sweeter than the 
invert-sugar dates. 

Different dates vary greatly as to their character 
when allowed to ripen naturally on the tree. The 
ideal date for transportation and marketing quickly 
shows a syrupy juice with a sugar concentration that 
automatically stops ferment action. It is "sugar 
cured" and is the best keeping date. Others become 
watery and, lacking this sugar concentration, tend 
to sour, through the production of organic acids. 
Still others dry too rapidly, the envelope cracks 
open and affords breeding places for bacteria, and 
yeasts and hatcheries for insect eggs. In the artificial 
ripening of dates all these factors and others are 
taken into account, and much progress has been made 
in perfecting processes for producing dates of good 
keeping qualities. These qualities depend principally 
on the following factors: 

1. The fruit must have a juice sufficiently 
concentrated to be sugar cured. This protects it 
from certain ferments which would carry the changes 
too far and result in souring. 

2. The external envelope must be preserved 
intact, firm, and dry. This prevents stickiness and 
the entrance of yeasts and bacteria and the deposition 
of insect eggs. 

3. The action of enzymes contained within the 
dates must be stopped. 

4. Any bacteria, yeasts, or insect eggs clinging 
to the fruit must be killed. 

Without going into exhaustive detail as to 
methods to bring about these desirable features, suffice 
it to say that this work is almost perfected through 



208 D A T E G R O W I N G 

judicious picking at a certain stage of maturity, pas- 
teurization, chemical treatment, and cleanliness in 
handling. 

The principle underlying artificial ripening is, 
subjecting the date to a process which kills the pro- 
toplasm, or so changes it that the enzymes within the 
cell protoplasm are liberated and mobilized so that 
their characteristic action can rapidly proceed. 
Many agencies can bring this about, and among them 
are heat and moisture, gasoline, nitrous ether, and 
various acids and alkalies. The essentials of a 
ripening process are: 

1. Efficiency as to rapidity and completeness of 
action. 

2. Preservation of flavor. 

3. No poisonous substance must be left in the 
fruit. 

4. Convenience and economy in operation. 

5. As dates are hygroscopic they must not be 
over exposed to moisture, as that favors souring. 

The most successful method at present, in Arizona, 
seems to be a combination of exposure to carbon 
dioxide gas with proper temperature and moisture, 
a process resulting in fully ripened, well flavored, and 
sterile fruit. Clean handling and proper shipping 
containers complete the method. 

In California, at the Indio Experiment Station, 
carbon dioxide is not found essential to the ripening 
method employed. Climatic and seasonal differences 
probably explain the varying results of different 
methods employed. In Arizona the date grower has 
to contend with rains at the ripening time, which the 
California grower has not to face. 




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PART II. 
DATE VARIETIES 



VARIETIES 

[In the following list of varieties I have given first, in each case, 
what I consider the correct spelling of the variety name, followed by 
variations which have been used in print, and the English meaning 
of the name, when I knew it. The list includes only one-fourth of 
the varieties which have been grown in the United States, but I 
believe it lacks none which ie of any importance now.] 

Amari, Ammary, Ammaree, The Abundant, 
a common Saharan variety, valued because it is 
one of the first to bear. It is the earliest North 
African date in the United States, but its quality 
here, as in its native home, is mediocre. The fruit 
is dark and soft. It ripens in August, or (in some 
parts of Tunisia) in the middle of July. It is rarely 
seen on the market, as the growers eat it up as rapidly 
as it ripens, picking it from the bunch as it matures. 
It ripens unevenly, a whole cluster never maturing 
at once. The palm is productive; the foliage coarse 
and heavy, leaves very numerous, rather short 
stalked, with long, wide leaflets. Stalks and branches 
of fruit-clusters are orange-colored. 

Fruit one and one-fourth to one and one-half 
inch long, about one-half as wide, generally inversely 
egg-shaped, square at base, rounded at apex. Color 
dark brown purple. Flesh one-eighth inch thick, 
soft and dark-colored, fibrous. Seed two-thirds as 
long as fruit, two-fifths as wide as long, mars brown 
in color, blunt at both ends, ventral channel open, 
germ pore indistinct. (Kearney). 

Amhat, The Pure (?), one of the commonest 
Egyptian varieties; has not yet fruited in the United 
States. A small date, orange-yellow in color, usually 
eaten only in the fresh, soft (rutab) condition, except 



212 DATEGROWING 

when grown in Upper Egypt, where it is dried (turning 
dark brown) and . exported in bags made of palm 
leaves. The flesh is pulpy and syrupy, sometimes 
mucilaginous; when grown in moist localities it 
does not keep well. The palm is highly productive 
but does not flourish near the seacoast; its center is 
at Badrashin in the province of Gizeh, where it has a 
sandy soil and is often not inundated. American 
missionaries in the Fayiim consider it the best date 
they get. 

Amir Hajj, Mirhage, Commander of the 
Pilgrimage Caravan (so named, it is said, because 
the owner of the original tree held this important 
position), an attractive soft date which is confined 
to the oasis of Mandali, three days' journey east of 
Baghdad on the frontier between Persia and 
Mesopotamia. The variety is rare even in its own 
home, and is jealously guarded by its owners, wealthy, 
aristocratic, and fanatical Muslim heretics, who 
refuse to part with offshoots, so that not even their 
neighbors and friends in the surrounding region have 
been able to secure this palm, and several attempts to 
secure offshoots for importation to America have 
likewise failed. As many seeds of the variety have 
been planted in California, it merits description. 

The palm is tall and graceful, but delicate, 
requiring a great deal of cultivation and water; even 
then it is a shy bearer. It grows in a sandy and 
alkaline soil. The fruit matures in midseason — 
probably about October 1st. It is indisputably a 
good date, but owes its reputation partly to the 
jealous care with which the owners guard it, and to 
its attractive appearance and unusual translucence. 



DATE VARIETIES 218 

It used to be sold occasionally on the Baghdad 
market but is now never seen there ; it is exported only 
as presents from the people of Mandali to their 
friends; in this way it not only reaches Baghdad 
but Damascus, Bayrut, and Constantinople. The 
Baghdadis, perhaps from jealousy, are accustomed 
to depreciate its quality, and intelligent men have 
even told me the ridiculous story that Amir Hajj 
is nothing but Khustawi, the Baghdad favorite, 
cured by a secret process. A dispassionate observer 
will decide that the date is of first quality, but that 
there are several in Mesopotamia which are equally 
good. 

In form, this date is broadly oblong-oval to 
oblong-ovate, flattened at base, widest at or near 
center, apex rounded to broadly pointed, base flattened. 
Size medium large, one and one-quarter to one and 
three-eighths inch long, seven-eighths to one inch 
wide. Surface dry or nearly so, roughly undulating, 
slightly glossy where the Ihick bluish-gray bloom 
has been rubbed off; deep, rich orange-brown in 
color, unusually translucent. Skin firm but rather 
thin, not easily broken, though tender; loosely folded, 
the folds rather prominent but only occasionally 
separating from the flesh; no blisters. Flesh three- 
eighths inch thick, of caramel consistency, translucent 
light golden-brown in color; fibrous lining of seed 
cavity yellowish-cream colored, fibre tender and 
unnoticeable in the mouth. Seed rather small, 
three-quarters inch long by one-fourth to three-eighths 
inch wide, oblong to oblong obovate, blunt at base, 
slightly tapering at apex; smooth; deep, dull brown in 
color; ventral channel almost or entirely closed; 
germ pore at or near center. Flavor very rich and 



214 D A T E G R O W I N G 

pleasant, not so sweet as to be cloying nor so strong 
as to be objectionable. Although the date somewhat 
resembles Maktum in appearance the flavor is 
entirely differt nt . 

Amri or Amiri,* the principal commercial date 
of Egypt, very largely exported to London from 
Sharqia, Faqus, Salhieh, and Abu Kabir; it often 
appears on the market under the name of "dates 
from Tel el Kebir. " Yellow and syrupy when 
fresh; dark brown when cured; large; admirable 
shipping qualities. It is much in demand and the 
best fruit is packed like confectionery. Has not 
fruited in the United States, unless an old and un- 
named palm near Indio, California, be of this variety. 
A palm of this name which fruits successfully at 
Tempe, Arizona, is a dry date. 

Anjasi, The Pyriform, a large, brown, soft 
date from Baghdad, which ripens in early September, 
and bears rather heavily ; the fruit is considered to be of 
good quality, but the variety is not common. Good 
when fresh or cured. Has not yet fruited in the 
United States. 

Arishti, see Rishti. 

Asab'i al Arus, Sba el Aroosa, The Bride's 
Fingers, a common name for a date among Arabs, 
because the fingers of a girl on her wedding day are 
polished and painted until they are works of art. 
The date of that name in Algeria and Tunisia is an 

*Perhaps from Amr, a common name for men. Delchevalerie 
refers it to the same root but makes it Umri, The Date of Life. 



DATE VARIETIES 215 

inferior soft date, but a much better one is grown to 
a limited extent in most parts of Mesopotamia; 
it is eaten either fresh or cured. The palm, which 
is a heavy bearer, ripens its fruit late in September. 
The date is long and slender, light brown in color. 
Has not yet fruited in this country. 

Asharasi, Ascherasi, Tall Growing, the best dry 
date of Mesopotamia*, and probably as good an 
example of the type as is to be found in the world. 
The apical end is usually soft and translucent, which 
has led some writers to call it semi-dry. It is a great 
favorite around Baghdad and almost as much so at 
Busreh, although it is grown in the latter district 
on a very small scale; and even at Baghdad most of 
the supply comes from oases toward the Persian 
frontier. It has been well tested in California and 
has proved itself well adapted to conditions here. 
By its soft consistency, freedom from fibre and tannin, 
and delicate flavor, it commends itself to all interested 
in dry dates, but unfortunately offshoots are difficult 
to procure. 

In form, the fruit is ovate to oblong ovate, 
broadest at or close to flattened base, and tapering to 
the pointed or broadly pointed apex. Sometimes 
tends toward ovate elliptical, being rather variable 
in form as well as size. Medium to medium large in 
size, one and one-eighth to one and three-eighths 
inch in length, seven-eighths to one and one-quarter 
inch in breadth. Surface hard, rough, straw-colored 

*Ancient writers mention a variety called Al Sarafan, now 
extinct, which seems to have been much the same as Asharasi. An 
interesting account of the dates anciently grown around Baghdad, 
as described by classical writers, is given by Father Anastase Marie 
in Loghat el Arab, No. XI, mai, 1913, p. 509. 



2in DATE GROWING 

around base, translucent brownish amber toward 
apex; bloom slight, grayish. Skin dry, thin, and 
tender, breaking frequently, coarsely wrinkled and 
folded, often separating from the flesh except around 
base. Flesh at basal end hard, opaque, creamy 
white; toward tip changing to translucent brownish 
amber, of solid consistency, one-fourth inch thick. 
Seed small, oblong-elliptical, blunt or rounded at 
base and sharply pointed at apex, five-eighths to 
three-quarters inch long, one-fourth to five-sixteenths 
inch broad; smooth; light brown; ventral channel 
almost closed, germ pore nearer base than apex. 
Flavor rich, sweet, and nutty. 

Two allied varieties are distinguished by the 
Arabs: Asharasi Aswad ("Black") which differs only 
in color, and Qurret Asharasi, The Coolness (i.e., 
pleasing freshness) of Asharasi, which has no marked 
point of difference. There is a widespread super- 
stition in Mesopotamia that these three varieties are 
sensitive to the odor of melons, and that if one opens 
or eats a melon under such a palm the dates will 
all fall to the ground within a few days. 

'Ausheh, Aooshet, perhaps correctly 'Aujeh, The 
Recurving, a rare variety from the Mzab of Algeria 
which has given good results in the United States. 

'Awaydi, "The Little Big One," a rare Busreh 
variety which many consider the best there, for its 
mild, delicate flavor as well as its large size. It is 
also the slowest to come into bearing, offshoots 
yielding nothing for from eight to fourteen years, 
according to Arabs. The date ripens about October 
1st. and must be well cured, when it packs excellently. 




w .s 






CQ 
< S 



DATE VARIETIES 217 

In its fresh state it is little esteemed. The fruit will 
keep for a year without deteriorating. A shy bearer. 

The date is broadly oblong to oblong ovate, 
usually regularly oblong but sometimes slightly 
widest near the broad, obliquely flattened base, 
thence tapering to the rounded or broadly pointed 
apex. Size very large, the length being one and three- 
quarters to two inches, breadth at widest point 
seven-eighths to one inch. Surface almost smooth, 
deep golden-brown in color, sometimes tinged with 
maroon, and overspread with a thick, grayish-blue 
bloom; marked with a few transverse russet scars 
toward apex, by which the Arabs distinguish it from 
similar varieties. Skin thin, tender, very slightly 
wrinkled, or sometimes folded longitudinally and 
transversely, but generally adhering to the flesh very 
closely. Flesh soft and syrupy, three-sixteenths to 
one-fourth inch in thickness, deep amber colored, 
tinged with red near the skin; the fibrous lining of the 
seed cavity rather thick and tough. Seed broadly 
oblong to oblong-obovate, rounded at base and 
bluntly rounded at apex, one inch long, three-eighths 
inch broad, smooth, grayish brown in color, ventral 
channel open but shallow, germ pore slightly nearer 
apex than base. Flavor moderately rich, sweet but 
not cloying. 

Two palms in Coachella Valley, brought from 
Busreh eight years ago, are bearing for the first time 
this year. The labels are confused but there is reason 
to believe that they are 'Awaydi. 

Azmashi, a rare but much esteemed soft date 
of the Algerian Ziban, which is never seen on the 
market, but which many Arabs declare is preferable 



218 DATE GROWING 

to Deglet Nur. It is said to be about the size of 
the latter date, sHghtly lighter in color, and equally 
translucent. It matures late — well on to November 1. 
A shy bearer, and the dates are small unless a large 
proportion of the clusters be removed. May have 
originated as a seedling of Deglet Nur. Has not yet 
fruited in the United States. 

Badinjani, The Egg-Plant Date, so called from 
its resemblance to the fruit of Solannm melongena. 
Introduced to the United States only this year. A 
scarce Baghdad variety, really a dry date, but better 
when gathered while still soft, and packed in boxes or 
skins. It is also good when fresh (rutab) and better 
than the average in its dry form. Season varies 
widely; in some places it is one of the earliest to ripen, 
say early August, while in others it comes a month 
later. Bears well and is highly esteemed. 

*Deglet should correctly be transliterated Daqlet when followed 
by a vowel, or Daqleh when followed by a consonant; the collective 
plural Daqal is often used by illiterate Arabs of the present day as a 
singular, Degal. Its general meaning is "weak, emaciated, or thin," 
and as applied to palms it means, according to one of the best classical 
lexicographers, "a variety of palm trees, and the dates thereof are 
bad, although the daqleh may be abundant in fruit; and some have 
red dates and some have black; the body of the dates being small 
and the stone large." Another says, "they are the worst of palm 
trees and their dates the worst of dates." The word refers, in short, 
to a chance seedling which can not be identified with any known 
variety, and as such it is regularly used today, and has always been 
so used, in all Arab communities. But occasionally a seedling desig- 
nated by this name is found worthy of perpetuation, and then, instead 
of being given a regular variety name, it is sometimes allowed to 
keep the word Daqleh in its name, to recall to the Arabs the fact 
that it is an adventitious variety — such is the case with Deglet Nur 
and many others. These exceptions do not weaken the general rule 
that a date described by the Arabs as a degal is of inferior quality, 
and in most cases it will be foimd that a variety whose name contains 
that word is of secondary importance. There is not the slightest 
authority for saying that degal means a soft date; it is, indeed, more 
likely to be dry than soft. 



DATE VARIETIES 219 

Form obovate, narrow and flattened at base, 
broadly pointed at apex. Very firm in consistency. 
Size medium large, one and three-eighths to one and 
one-half inch in length, seven-eighths to one and one- 
sixteenth inch in breadth. Surface fairly smooth, 
slightly rough or undulating in parts, dry, light 
purplish maroon in color, with a satiny sheen; bloom 
extremely slight. Skin dry, thin but rather tough, 
coarsely wrinkled transversely over a part of the 
surface, the rest smooth or undulating; adheres closely. 
Flesh three-sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick, firm 
but not brittle, opaque and whitish near base, usually 
changing to translucent brownish amber toward apex; 
fibrous lining of seed cavity rather prominent. Seed 
elliptical, tapering at base and roundly pointed at apex, 
seven-eighths inch long, three-eighths inch broad, 
smooth, grayish brown, ventral channel open, germ 
pore slightly nearer base than apex. Flavor rather 
rich for a dry date; nutty and pleasant. 

Badrahi, Badraihi, Bedraihe, Badurahi, from 
the oasis of Badr4, (although those of Mandali are 
now considered better). The palm flourishes in a 
sandy soil, and is rarely found at Baghdad. The date 
is much liked by the Baghdadis, but the whole supply 
is shipped in. The palm is easy to cultivate, but 
bears moderately; it has been a decided success in 
America. Season late September. 

Form broadly oblong, tending to oblong-oval and 
oblong-obovate, broadest between center and apex. 
Base slightly flattened, apex broadly pointed. Size 
medium to medium large, one and one-fourth to one 
and three-fourths inch long, seven-eighths to one 
and one-eighth inch wide. Surface hard and dry, 



220 DATEGROWING 

smooth to roughly undulating, rarely wrinkled; 
brownish straw colored, sometimes darker toward 
apex and lighter toward base. Skin hard, dry, and 
brittle, adhering closely to flesh and rarely wrinkled 
or folded. Flesh three-eighths inch thick, light 
straw colored, very hard and solid, not mealy, free 
from fibre. Seed oblong-elliptical, slightly tapering 
at base and pointed at apex, three-fourths inch long, 
five-sixteenths inch wide, fairly smooth, deep brown in 
color, ventral channel open, narrow ; germ pore slightly 
nearer apex. Flavor remarkably sweet and delicate, 
almost honey-like, with very little of the nutty 
flavor that characterizes Asharasi. 

Badrashin, name of a village in Egypt noted as 
a center of date culture. A variety which was 
introduced under the probably erroneous name of 
Okka de Badrashin has proved decidedly valuable in 
Arizona and is worthy of wide propagation. It is 
similar in general appearance to Birket al Hajji 
but is excessively late in maturing its fruit, which in 
the Tempe garden frequently hangs on the tree all 
winter; some of the best dates have been picked in 
March. It is hardy and a heavy bearer, but in that 
unfavorable climate the fruits do not mature well 
unless artificially ripened with carbon dioxid; after 
such treatment, however, they are an excellent and 
saleable date, and there is practically no waste. The 
variety is distinguished by the deep orange color of the 
stems of its fruit clusters; there will probably be little 
difiiculty in identifying it in its native home, and it can 
then be introduced to the United States on a large scale. 

Bajlani, vulgarly Baglani or Baklani, named 
after the Bajleh tribe of Arabs, noted as palm growers. 



DATE VARIETIES 2*1 

A small but good Baghdad dry date, which closely 
resembles the favorite Zahidi in appearance and 
ripens at the same time — that is, it is early. Bears 
well. Not common. No record of its performance in 
America yet. 

Barban, Berban, The Fair Persian*, a name 
given because of its brilliant red color when fresh. 
Prized at Baghdad solely for its early maturity (late 
July); it does not cure or keep well. The date is of 
medium size; it turns dark brown when fully mature, 
but never becomes very sweet, or entirely loses its 
astringency. It is fairly common, however, being 
a rank grower, and considered the heaviest bearer of 
the region, with the possible exception of Zahidi, 
yields of 300 or 350 pounds being recorded. The 
palm may be distinguished by the great size of its 
petioles at the base; cross sections of them are used 
by small boys when learning to swim in the Tigris, 
because of their lightness as well as size. The fruit 
is considered rather indigestible; much of it is used, 
when fresh, for the manufacture of dibs or date 
syrup, for which the variety is considered well suited. 

Barhi, Berhi, originally Barhi. The Barh are 
hot winds which prevail at Busreh during the summer 
and which are supposed to have a particular influence 
on the maturity of this date. It disputes with 
'Awaydi the first rank at Busreh, although it is 
scarce; hardly grown at Baghdad. It is delicious at 
any stage, but unrivaled when fresh. Offshoots are 

*The word is itself Persian in origin, and is a contraction of 
BdhrB4nu, "the beautiful girl." It will be seen, therefore, that my 
translation above is somewhat free. The variety Tun, now extinct, 
seems to have been similar to, if not identical with, B4rb4n. 



222 DATEGROWING 

slower in coming into bearing than some varieties, but 
after reaching maturity are prolific. The dates ripen 
during the latter half of September. 

They are broadly ovate, tending to oval, broadest 
near center or one-third of the distance from base to 
apex, tapering slightly toward both ends, but chiefly 
toward apex. Size medium large, the length being one 
and one-fourth to one and one-half inch, width near 
base seven-eighths to one and one-fourth inch, more 
variable in size than most varieties. Surface un- 
dulating, translucent amber brown in color, over- 
spread with a bluish-gray bloom which makes it 
rather dull in appearance; skin medium thin and 
rather easily broken, not wrinkled, but often separating 
from the flesh, especially toward the apex of the 
fruit, in prominent folds and blisters. Flesh firm but 
very tender, one-fourth inch thick, very syrupy, 
translucent golden-brown in color. Seed oblong to 
oblong-ovate, blunt at base, rather sharply pointed at 
apex, three-fourths inch long, five-sixteenths inch 
broad, rough near base but becoming smooth at apex, 
grayish brown, ventral channel broadly open, germ 
pore nearer apex than base. Flavor mild apd ex- 
tremely delicate, rich yet not heavy or cloying. 

The palm is distinguished by a stout trunk. It 
is successful in the United States, but in the un- 
favorable climate of Salt River Valley does not 
ripen evenly. 

Bartamoda, Bertamoda, the best soft date of 
the Sudan, and the only soft date found in commerce 
there; it has recently been introduced to the United 
States from Nubia. It brings twice as high a price 



DATE VARIETIES 223 

as the more popular dry dates which form the bulk 
of Sudan commerce; probably adapted only to the 
hottest regions of America. 

Bint 'Aisheh (a woman's name), a common date 
of the Egyptian delta; has not yet fruited in the 
United States. Large, nearly spherical in form, red 
when fresh but turns almost black when cured; 
flesh thick and syrupy, seed small. Usually eaten 
when fresh, or, if preserved, iJ put in bags or skins. 
Late in maturing. 

Birket al Hajji, Hadji, Haggi, The Pilgrim's 
Pool, name of an oasis near Cairo where the annual 
caravan to Mecca makes its first stop; also called 
Birkawi, from the same root, and Hayani, the name 
of a village (?); one of the best and earliest Egyptian 
dates and of great value in the United States. No 
variety has given such good results in Arizona, and 
it may be expected to do even better in California. 

Outside the oasis from which it takes its name, 
and which has in all ages been famous for the quality 
of its dates, this variety is grown commercially in the 
province of Galiubia, principally in clayey soil, and 
particularly around the town of Marg . It is generally 
considered the earliest of the commercial varieties in 
Egypt, ripening in July. In Arizona it ripens about 
October 1, but should do much better than this in 
favored localities in California. 

The palm is one of the most ornamental ever 
introduced to the United States, with soft and grace- 
ful leaves and few spines. It proved notably hardy 

*The only place in Palestine where dates are now grown com- 
mercially is Gaza (Ghazzeh), and it is this variety which is there 
grown, particularly at the famous Monastery of Dates. 



224 D A T E G R O W I N G 

in the severe freeze of last winter. It is also extra- 
ordinarily fecund : in the number of offshoots produced 
it probably surpasses any other variety of good 
quality. On one occasion fifty-three offshoots were 
taken from a palm at Tempe. And, best of all, it 
seems able to produce offshoots without diminishing 
its great yields of fruit: 200 or 250 pounds is by no 
means a remarkable crop for it. 

The date is long, and thick in proportion to its 
length; bright red before fully ripe, and dark brown 
when cured. It ripens on the bunch with great 
evenness, hangs steadily until the grower picks it off, 
and is borne on long stems which allow the crop 
to be gathered with a minimum of labor: two men 
have harvested 1000 pounds in a day at Tempe. 
Because of the facility with which the crop is handled, 
as well as the large yield, Vinson declares that anyone 
who grows the variety in Arizona and only makes five 
cents a pound net profit from the fruit will clear $200 
per acre annually. The dates have never shown any 
defect in ripening, except in hot, steamy weather, when 
the ends sometimes crack — but this kind of weather 
is rarely found in most date-growing districts. 

The palm bears at a very early age in Egypt, 
often two years after the offshoot is planted.* The 
variety is one that can be unhesitatingly recommended 
to the American planter. 

Brim, Brem, often spelled Brehm by confusion 
with Ibrahimi, while the original form may have 
been Brin.t Common at Busreh, where it is eaten 

*DeIchevaIerie, G. Le Dattier. In Bui. de la Fed. des Soc. 
Hort. de Belgique, 2d fasc. Liege, 1871. The author was head 
gardener to the Khedive. 

fThis variety seems hopelessly confused. After collating ancient 
authorities, the learned Carmelite friar Pere Anastase-Marie of 



DATE VARIETIES 225 

fresh or boiled; rare at Baghdad, where it is much 
more highly esteemed. It is never boiled at Baghdad; 
it is never preserved in any other way at Busreh. After 
its sixth year the ofiFshoot bears heavily, ripening 
its fruits about September 15. 

The following description was made from a 
boiled specimen at Busreh : form oblong-ovate, widest 
near the flattened base, thence tapering to the broadly 
pointed apex; size medium, length one and one- 
fourth to one and one-half inch, breadth at widest 
point three-fourths to seven-eighths inch. Surface 
hard and rough, golden brown to light brown in 
color, bloom none. Skin thin, dry, hard, profusely 
wrinkled in all directions but adhering to the flesh 
very closely. Flesh hard, dry, coarsely granular, 
one-eighth to three-sixteenths inch thick, golden 
brown near skin but becoming lighter in color toward 
the seed. Seed oblong, blunt at base, broadly 
pointed at apex, seven-eighths inch long, five- 
sixteenths inch wide, fairly smooth, brownish gray, 
ventral channel almost closed. Flavor sweet, very 
slightly astringent. 

Bu Narinja or sometimes Qush Bu Narinja, 
Father of the Orange, because of its color*. A 
common soft date in the Persian Gulf and inland 

Baghdad reached the conclusion that it was originally the same as 
Burni or Birni (see Loghat el Arab, No. 11, Baghdad, April, 1912.) 
But even granting this, the two varieties are certainly distinct now, 
if indeed there be not two or more varieties contained in each name. 
The lexicographer Abu Hanlfah makes the interesting suggestion that 
this variety is identical with the famous Sayhani, which grows in the 
Hijaz and particularly at Khaybar, east of Madina, and is known 
in Algeria as Kasbeh. 

*The Persian naranj originally meant flame-colored; hence 
it has come to mean the fruit of that color, in most modern languages. 
Cf. Spanish naranja; our own word orange is of the same origin. 



226 D A T E G R O W I N G 

Arabia under this name, sometinies corrupted to 
Qush Bin Aringa; it is often sold boiled, when it 
passes — in the Masqat market, at least — under the 
name of Sakkari, sugary. It is said to be the favorite 
variety on the island of Bahrayn; and it is so like 
Khalaseh in appearance that attempts are often 
made to sell it as such. The variety (which has not 
yet fruited in America) is highly esteemed; it ripens 
in the latter part of August, and yields heavily. One 
of the favorite dates for eating rutab, but it also 
keeps well; as it is soft under Arab handling it is 
usually sold in bags; it has a very tender, light brown 
skin, small seed and no fibre; flesh light golden brown 
in color, caramel consistency but rather sticky. 
Flavor sweet and delicate. Boiled specimens which 
I obtained were one and one-fourth inch long, 
five-eighths inch wide, broadest about base, tapering 
gradually to rounded apex. Dark chestnut-brown 
color. Flesh one-eighth inch thick, fairly soft, dark 
cafe au lait color, some fibre, cavity large and loose. 
Seed, seven-eighths inch long, five-sixteenths inch 
broad. Flavor in boiled form bad. 

Burlus, Bourlos, (name of a village) one of the 
largest dates of Egypt, grown throughout the delta, 
particularly around Rosetta. It is soft, oval in form, 
skin orange-yellow when fresh (in which form it is 
usually consumed) but later turns dark brown; pulp 
solid and light in color; flavor slightly astringent. 
It is the favorite variety for making conserves and 
sweet pickles. Has not fruited in America. 

Burni, Berni, The Sweetmeat Jar (Pers.) , an 

*This is the derivation given me in Masqat; other authorities 
derive it from a town named Burn, or from the Pers., bir, fruit and 



DATE VARIETIES 227 

Oman variety which apparently has no relation 
to the classical Birni of Arabia and North Africa 
despite the similarity in name. It is a dry date 
similar to Naghal and of unique appearance. Fruit 
one and eleven-sixteenths inch long, eleven-six- 
teenths inch wide, basal half of almost uniform 
width, tapering thence to blunt, flattened, sometimes 
depressed apex. Basal half a dead, yellowish gra3% 
apical end light chestnut brown, the division of colors 
being distinct. Seed cavity large, and large seed 
loose in it, with considerable fibre. Flesh thin but 
more tender than that of the ordinary dry date; 
keeps indefinitely. Seed one inch long, one-quarter 
inch wide, usually some fibre adhering to it. Date 
requires chewing and has a rich, full, but not cloying 
flavor, with slight trace of bitterness. It is often sold 
on strings, like necklaces, in the Masqat market, at 
the rate of thirty for a cent. Ripens midseason, 
bears moderately. Not a common variety in Samail. 
Cannot be considered of top-notch quality, but on 
account of its great size and double coloring it is 
decidedly interesting. 

Burshi, The Curved Dagger (Hind.), a small, 
fat, yellow, dry date of Oman, doubtless curved, as 
its name suggests. It is a common variety, valued 
because it ripens about June 1. Yield said to be of 
moderate amount. Has not yet borne in America. 

nik, good; or bir, crop and ni, heavy, etc. Consult Pere Anastase, 
loc. cit. His opinion that this was originally the same as Brim has 
been mentioned, and Fairchild (B. P. I. Bui. No. 54, p. 23) evidently 
saw Brim, not Burni of Masqat, which is markedly different. The 
varieties Brim and Burni are too confused to be separated without 
an exhaustive investigation. 

*Highly prized by Arabs because Muhammad said, " It causeth 
sickness to depart, and there is no sickness in it." Still used as a diet 
in smallpox. 



228 DATEGROWING 

Deglet Niir, properly Daqlet al Nur, Date of the 
Light, or The Translucent Seedling, a variety which 
originated in the Saharan oasis of Balad al Ahmar 300 
years ago and at once assumed the position of un- 
contested supremacy which had previously been 
held by Kasbeh or Bu ZakrI.* Another version 
derives its name from a female saint, Lalla Niireh, 
who is supposed to have lived at the oasis, where she 
said her prayers regularly by the side of the road, 
and repeated the ninety -nine names of God; but 
as she was too poor to buy a rosary for this purpose, 
she selected ninety-nine date seeds, on which she told 
the attributes of the Deity. When she died, passers- 
by found her body and buried her on the spot; the 
ninety-nine date seeds were left lying about and, taking 
root, became palms of this new and superlative 
variety which, after the owner of the seeds, was called 
Degleh Nureh, or Nureh's seedling. Such is the 
Arabic legend, and the moralising relator adds, "Thus 
did God reward those who had bestowed charity on 
his servant (Lalla Nureh) by giving them better 
dates than they had before possessed, "f The variety 
has now become the standard of excellence in Algeria 
and Tunisia. I estimate, on the basis of government 

*See Descr. Gen. de Africa by Luis del Marmol, folio 15. Granada 
1573. The variety is still found in Tunisia, where it is esteemed, and 
in TaOIalet, where it even today ranks as one of the best dates. 

fL. Gognalons has recently put forward a new version of the 
name, for which he alleges the authority of a Tradition: that Muham- 
mad had a favorite wife named Nureh who, one day as she was 
bathing, found a seedling palm which had grown by the fountain; 
she called the prophet's attention to it, and he transplanted it and 
named it in her honor. This legend is too absurd to be worthy of 
notice. In point of fact, Muhammad never had a wife named 
Nureh. Gognalons, L. La Legende du Palmier dans I'Afrique du 
Nord. Bui. Soc. de Geog. et d'Archeol. d'Oran, t.XXXIL fasc. 
CXXX (1st trim.) an. 35, mars, 1912, p. 115; and also in Revue 
Africaine, an. 52, No. 285, p. 203. Alger, 2d trim., 1912. 



DATE VARIETIES 229 

figures of the production, that in the former country 
there are at least 350,000 palms of that sort; 
in Tunisia Gallois* calculates that ten per cent of the 
2,000,000 palms are Deglet Nurs. Nevertheless, the 
production can hardly meet the demand for this date 
from European markets. 

It is of medium size, very sweet, with a delicate 
and particularly mild flavor in which the characteristic 
taste of the date is lacking, so that it is more like a 
confection than a fruit. Its defects are a tendency 
to ferment after it has been kept for some months, 
and the immense amount of heat needed to mature 
it properly. In fact, there is perhaps no date in 
America which needs a more prolonged high 
temperature, and for this reason its growth will 
never be profitable except in a few favored regions 
such as the Salton Basin of California. 

Unless carefully handled the date is soft and 
sticky, but if well cured, or if ripened artificially, its 
consistency is entirely satisfactory. The Arabs most 
fear a rain when it is ripening; this spoils the appear- 
ance of the dates and makes them unsaleable for fancy 
trade, so they are pressed tightly into skins, and 
within a few months begin to ferment, acquiring a 
pineapple flavor which is much appreciated by the 
poor nomad who buys them at bargain prices. In 
America they can be saved, if struck by rain, by 
quick artificial ripening, which, however, darkens 
their color and destroys most of the distinctive flavor. 
Much of the fruit offered for sale in Algerian markets 
is a disgusting, syrupy mass, but the variety, like 
many other soft dates, can also be marketed as a dry 

*Gallois, Eugene. L'Olivier et le Palmier en Tunisie. Bui. Soc. 
de Geog. Commerciale, t. XXXII, p. 465. Paris, 1910. 



230 DATEGROWING 

date, and is so marketed, particularly in the oasis of 
El Kantara where, the summer being too short to 
mature it properly, the fruit has a crisp texture and 
a little astringency. In this condition it is little 
relished by Europeans, although the Kantarans, 
with a loyal desire to conceal the deficiencies of 
their climate, declare they would not eat the mushy 
Deglet Nurs which the people of other oases enjoy. 

The variety matures in October or early in 
November. In Coachella Valley it tends to dry 
up or mummify on the palm at the veiy time it should 
be filling with syrup; this may be prevented by daily 
irrigations at the ripening period. The palm demands 
plenty of care, in the shape of irrigation, fertilization 
and cultivation, but, given this, shows less tendency 
than most varieties to rest every other year. The 
yield averages 100 pounds or more in California. 
Offshoots are hardy, easily shipped and rooted. 
The Arabs have the idea that the wood of this variety 
is more resistant to rot, when placed in the ground, 
than any other. 

The tree, like those of most particularly choice 
dates, is notably graceful with its slender trunk, 
light and delicate foliage, which is of a yellowish 
green, and its bright yellow fruit stalks, which hang 
down far below the crown of foliage. Its spines are 
slender and weak. 

The fruit is one and one-third to two inches long 
and about one-half as wide, widest near middle, 
sloping slightly to flattened or depressed base and 
more abruptly to bluntly pointed apex. Color 

*Students of environment will be interested in the statement 
that in the Tuat oases of the remote Sahara, Deglet Nur is "degener- 
ate and despised." Martin, A. G. P. Oasis Sahariennes, p. "idO f. 
Paris, 1908. 



DATE VARIETIES 231 

orange rufous before maturity, maroon when ripe; 
its skin ochraceous colored where loose, shiny. Flesh 
one-fourth inch thick, deep golden brown, soft and 
melting, conspicously translucent, so that the outline of 
the seed can be seen if a date is held to the light. 
Seed a little more than one-half as long as the fruit, 
pointed at apex and base, light chestnut in color, 
ventral channel shallow and partly closed, germ 
pore in center. 

Dubaini, Deboeni, Deboweni, from the oasis of 
Dubai, near Baghdad; a date resembling Khustawi, 
but larger. Has not yet been tested in California. 
The palm bears heavily, midseason, and the fruit 
keeps well. It is rarely eaten fresh, but is packed in 
skins for future use. Under American handling it 
should prove an excellent date for packing and 
shipping in attractive form. 

Form oblong-oval to oblong-ovate, widest at 
center or slightly below, thence tapering to the 
flattened base and the rounded to broadly pointed 
apex. Size medium, length one and one-fourth to 
one and one-half inch, breadth seven-eighths inch. 
Surface irregularly rough, translucent, clear, light 
reddish brown in color, bloom unnoticeable. Skin 
thin but moderately tough, firm, not wrinkled but 
sometimes folded or blistered and separating from 
the flesh, although in the main it adheres closely. 
Flesh one-eighth to three-sixteenths inch thick, 
translucent golden brown in color, firm but tender, 
syrupy, slightly fibrous around seed. Seed broadly 
oblong rounded at both ends, plump, three-fourths inch 
long, five-sixteenths inch broad, smooth, cinnamon 
brown, ventral channel narrow, germ pore slightly 



2S2 DATE GROWING 

nearer apex than base. Flavor mild but rich and 
syrupy, very similar to that of Khustawi. 

El Kseba, see Kasbeh. 

Fardh, Fard, The Separated, because of the 
way the dates are arranged on the bunch, according 
to modern Omani etymologists, but the ancients, 
who are much more entitled to credit, spell it 
differently, in a way that probably means "The 
Apportioned/' This is the great commercial staple 
of Oman, and is sold in large quantities on the 
American market, where its perfect form, due to its 
firmness, makes it bring a relatively high price in 
spite of its second-rate quality. 

The variety is confined to Samail Valley and its 
continuation, WadI Aman, in eastern Arabia, sixty 
miles from the coast, and it so preponderates that 
two-thirds of the half million palms are said to be 
Fardhs. The growers declare that it will not flourish in 
any other locality, and it certainly does not flourish 
on the coast, probably because of the difference in 
climatic conditions; but in its own home it is not 
considered a delicate variety. Offshoots grow readily 
if given care, and usually begin to bear in three years, 
reaching their maximum yield three or four years 
later; the number of bunches carried by a palm is 
large, but they are not individually heavy, and 180 
pounds is considered a big yield for one palm. 

When the fruit begins to ripen, about September 
1, the whole of Oman is affected, and the only activity 
of the year takes place on a largt- scale. The pro- 
duction is now about as large as is profitable, and 
if the year is unusually favorable it is difficult to 



DATE VARIETIES 233 

dispose of the crop, for which the growers receive 
little more than one cent a pound. In an ordinary 
year they get about a cent and a half. Usually 
buyers take the crop while it is still on the tree, 
paying the owner $1.50 to $2.00 for the crop of a 
good tree. Because of its remarkable shipping and 
keeping qualities, the date is exported all over the 
Persian Gulf region, to Southern Arabia, and in large 
quantities to East Africa; but the United States is, 
as it has been for many years, one of the most profit- 
able customers. Much of the date export trade is 
carried on by chartered steamers which make the trip 
to New York direct. Exports to New York in 1911 
were 3,882,008.5 pounds valued at $154,662.42, 
according to consular invoice; for preceding years the 
value of the annual shipment to New York was as 
follows : 

1910 $ 94,082 

1909 40,771 

1908 59,036 

1907 105,011 

1906 131,058 

Probably this variability in the exports is due 
more to fluctuation in the amount of the crop than 
to variation of the American demand, which is fairly 
steady, because the Fardh date is the only one imported 
by the United States which can be bought in fairly 
presentable condition. Its tough, firm flesh allows 
it to come on the table intact, while the superior 
Malawi and Khadhrawi of . Busreh have been so 
squeezed out of shape by the heavy feet of the Arab 
packer that they do not look presentable, no matter 
how good their flavor may be. 



234 DATEGROWING 

Offshoots of the Fardh palm are invariably 
small in size, and those used by native growers 
rarely weigh more than five pounds. Such an 
offshoot is good to plant as soon as taken from the 
tree, but of course does not stand shipment as well 
as a larger one would, and this may be one of the 
reasons why the variety has not been established 
far from its original home. Several attempts have 
been unsuccessfully made to start it in the United 
States; during the present year, however, it was 
introduced on a large enough scale to give every 
chance of success. The variety certainly receives 
a great deal of care from its owners, and probably 
needs the same treatment in the United States, 
irrigation, cultivation and fertilization not being 
stinted. While no fruit has yet been produced 
from offshoot Fardhs in this country, seedlings have 
given good results in Arizona, the product in more 
than one case being better than that which is imported; 
and there is a particularly good reason to expect 
satisfactory results from seedlings of this variety, 
since it is so much cultivated in the few places 
where it is grown that there is every chance that the 
male by which the tree was pollinated was also a 
Fardh, of seedling origin. Because of its early 
maturity and shipping qualities the variety will be 
valuable to the United States; yet it cannot be con- 
sidered as a date of high quality, if flavor alone be 
considered, and it can never compete with such varie- 
ties as Maktiim or Khadhrawi, far less Khalaseh or 
Deglet Nur. 

The berry may be technically described as 
follows: Very dark brown, one and one-fourth 
inch long, three-quarters inch wide, broadest near 



DATE VARIETIES i£35 

middle but tapering little until its blunt apex. Flesh 
one-eighth to one-fourth inch thick, sticky but of 
firm consistency, russet brown in color. Skin fairly 
thin and tender. Seed small, five-eighths inch long, 
three-eighths wide, tight in cavity; little fibre. Flavor 
sweet with rather strong after-taste. A small date, 
but if packed properly has dry skin and perfect 
shape. 

Fursi, Farisi, vulgarly pronounced Firsi, The 
Persian, a little-known Busreh variety which was 
introduced to the United States this year. It is 
eaten either fresh or cured. The dates ripen early 
in October, and the yield of the palm is fairly large. 
Packing and keeping qualities excellent. 

Form oblong-ovate, widest close to the flattened 
base, thence tapering to the sharply pointed apex. 
Size large, length being one and one-half to one and 
three-fourths inch, breadth at widest point three- 
fourths to seven-eighths inch. Surface slightly ir- 
regular, somewhat glossy, translucent, deep reddish 
brown to purplish maroon in color, the bloom very 
slight. Skin thin but fairly tough, indiscriminately 
wrinkled but not deeply so, occasionally separating 
from the flesh in folds . Flesh soft and tender, one-fourth 
inch thick, translucent amber to reddish amber in 
color. Seed oblong, rounded at both ends, three- 
fourths inch in length, five-sixteenths in breadth, 
smooth, cinnamon brown in color, ventral channel 
almost closed. Flavor rich and sweet; decidedly 
pleasant. 

Ghars, Rhars, R'ars, The Vigorous Grower, 
one of the commonest of North Africa soft dates and 



236 DATE GROWING 

much esteemed because of its early maturity, heavy 
yield, resistance to alkali*, tolerance of neglect, and 
the easy digestibility of its fruit, even when eaten in 
large quantities steadily. In the United States 
it has proved a shyer bearer, and in moist climates 
such as that of the Salt River Valley, Arizona, its 
fruit matures unevenly, and ferments before it can be 
handled. In California, and particularly if pollinated 
by Phoenix canariensis, the fruit is easy to handle 
and will always be valuable because of its large size 
and earliness. It seems to do best on a sandy soil. 

In California the fruit ripens at the middle of 
August, but in its native home sometimes two weeks 
earlier than this. The tree shows a tendency to bear 
a good crop only every other year, but this is largely 
overcome by giving it good treatment. The root 
system is deep, in comparison with the shallower root 
system of Deglet Nur. Offshoots are considered 
hardy by the Algerians, although other varieties 
have been found easier to propagate in the United 
States. 

As is indicated by its name, the tree is sturdy and 
vigorous, the trunk stout, and the foliage luxuriant, 
the numerous long leaves being crowded with long, 
broad leaflets. Stalks and branches of fruit-clusters 
are bright orange. 

The fruit itself is one and one-half to two inches 
or more in length, and two-fifths to nearly one-half 
as wide, oblong or inversely egg-shaped, bay colored, 
but sometimes ochraceous when the shiny skin has 
lifted in big blisters. In general, the skin adheres 
closely to the flesh, which is three-eighths inch thick, 

*In Algeria no variety tolerates more alkali unless it be the 
inferior dry date, Degla Baydhd. 



DATE VARIETIES 237 

soft and syrupy when fresh, granular after it has been 
kept a year or moi-e; slightly translucent. Seed 
three-fourths to one inch long, rounded at each end, 
cinnamon to chestnut in color, ventral channel deep, 
sometimes closed near middle, germ pore in center. 
Flavor sweet and very rich. 

When matured in the way usual in California, 
the fruit is delicious if fresh, but the syrup drips out 
of it so that in a few weeks it becomes dry and tasteless. 
The Algerian overcomes this by pressing the fruit 
tightly in skins as soon as it is picked. In California 
the fruit is firm and does not drip if it is pollinated 
by the so-called Canary Island date palm; otherwise 
it should be carefully ripened artificially. Irrigation 
should be stopped when the dates begin to soften on 
the tree. In Arizona it is considered that the best 
results are secured when the fruit is artificially 
matured with carbon dioxid. Because of the short 
stem of its fruit cluster the dates are difficult to 
pick; the green fruit can be detached more easily 
than that which is fully ripe. The variety proved 
rather sensitive to cold last winter. 

Ghazi, Rhazi, R'azi, The Warrior (i.e., a 
participant in a raiding foray of the nomads), one of 
the earliest of Algerian varieties, usually eaten when 
fresh and soft — the rutab stage. The palm is of 
middle size, and never bears very heavily; in the 
ZIban the fruit ripens in September. The date is 
described as of medium size, long in proportion to its 
breadth, yellowish red when fresh, later turning to 
a golden brown ; normally soft, but if left on the palm 
it will become almost dry, and in that condition 
keeps well. Sub- varieties distinguished by the Arabs 



238 D A T E G R O W I N G 

are Laiin al Ghazi and Niiwa al Ghazi, both doubtless 
of seedling origin; the former is considered of superior 
cjuality and the latter earlier in ripening. 

Gundila, Gondila, Gondela, a dry date from 
Nubia and the Sudan, which has been introduced to 
the United States but has not yet fruited. Large 
size, yellowish brown color. Season September. 
Ordinarily grows in sand. With Barakawi, another 
dry variety, this makes up practically the whole 
commerce in dates in the Sudan. An ardab (320 
pounds) of the latter sells for $4 to $5 while the same 
quantity of Gundila brings from $5 to $6. 

Halawi, The Sweet, the great commercial date 
of Mesopotamia and probably the most important 
commercial date of the world in point of quantity 
sold. It ripens early, bears heavily, packs well, and 
keeps well, but the Arabs themselves do not care 
for it as a diet, because they consider it not only 
cloying but rather indigestible. It is a favorite with 
the American consumer, however, largely on account 
of its light and attractive color, and as it has been 
proved to succeed excellently in America it will 
probably be planted here on a large scale. In Busreh 
the variety ripens during the first two weeks of 
September. 

Form slender oblong to oblong-ovate, tapering 
almost unnoticeably from the broad, flattened base 
to the blunt or broadly pointed apex. Size medium 
large, the length being one and one-fourth to one and 
three-fourths inch, width near base three-fourths to 
thirteen-sixteenths inch. Surface slightly rough, 
translucent bright golden brown in color, the bluish- 



ATE VARIETIES 239 

gray bloom almost imnoticeable. Skin almost tough 
but rather thin, coarsely wrinkled longitudinally, 
sometimes separating from the flesh in longitudinal 
folds. Flesh very firm, one-eighth to three-sixteenths 
inch thick, translucent golden amber in color, 
syrupy and tender. Seed slender oblong, sometimes 
slightly curved dorso-ventrally, blunt at base, blunt 
to broadly pointed at apex, seven-eighths inch in 
length, one-fourth inch in breadth, grayish-brown in 
color, smooth, ventral channel broadly open. Flavor 
extremely sweet and honey-like, but not rich. 

In the constantly saturated adobe soil of Tempe, 
Arizona, Halawi has produced fruit much superior 
to that imported annually for the American market. 
The dates are sufficiently firm to pack in small boxes 
without losing their form, and present an attractive 
contrast to the compact mass which is usually sold 
in the groceries. They are rich in sugar and possess 
the flavor to which the buying public is accustomed; 
therefore they will always be marketable to advantage. 
The variety does fully as well in California as in 
Arizona, ripening in September, and is certain always 
to have an important place in the commercial pro- 
duction of the United States. 

Halawi Makkawi, The Sweet Date of Mecca. 
This variety is known at Baghdad and at Hilleh 
(where it is most common) simply as Halawi, but it is 
entirely distinct from the better-known Busreh 
variety of that name, and I have added the epithet 
Makkawi, to avoid confusion. As the epithet 
indicates, this variety was brought to Baghdad at 
some time in the past by pilgrims returning from 
Mecca, and it is now fairly common, although the 



240 DATEGROWING 

fruit rarely appears in the markets. It seems to be 
a decidedly desirable sort, as it is one of the earliest 
to ripen (August, sometimes late July), and bears 
heavily. The date in many respects resembles the 
Halawi of commerce, but I believe it will prove even 
more valuable to California. 

It is probably identical with the variety Halaweh 
mentioned by Faqir Amin al Madani, who, in dis- 
cussing the varieties of dates which should be planted, 
says, "The most desirable is Halaweh, because the 
palm cannot be equalled for its beauty and nobility, 
which are admired by all, so that it attracts people 
from outside regions like Qasim, and strangers when 
they learn of the palm and its value carry it away and 
spread it." Strangely enough, no other author 
mentions a variety at Madina under this name; 
probably it is the modern spelling and pronunciation 
of the famous variety Hilwa.* As to the name, the 
testimony of Faqir Amin can hardly be disregarded, 
since he is a resident of the city in question. The 
Baghdadis, familiar with the Busreh date Halawi, 
probably changed the Madina name Halaweh without 
realizing it, to make it like the form to which they 
were accustomed. 

*Held in high repute because of a legend that Muhammad 
planted a seed of it which giew to full height and produced fruit 
within a few hours, before the eyes of his companions. A variety 
Halaya is also mentioned, but it is very small and does not answer 
the description here. As there is little water or cultivation around 
Mecca, most of the dates there have been brought from Madina. 
The curious will find a list of 115 varieties from this sacred city 
given by G. Fluegel in Ztschft. d. Deutsch. Morg. Ges., Band XVI, 
p. 686, Leipzig, 1862, from MS. of a pilgrimage by Shaykh Abdu-1 
Ghani Ismail al Nabulusi, who had his information from Fath al 
Din al Zarandi al Madani. The root hlw ("sweet") is perhaps more 
commonly used than any other in forming the names of Arab date 
varieties, and no region is without several variations on it. 




HARVESTING DATES 
Going after the crop of an unusually tall palm at Elche, Spain. 



DATE VARIETIES 241 

In form the fruit is slender oblong, slightly wider 
toward the flattened base than toward the broadly 
pointed apex; size medium large, length one and one- 
half to one and three-fourths inch, breadth three- 
fourths inch. Surface rather smooth, glossy, bright 
golden brown in color and so translucent that the 
outline of the seed can be seen; bloom almost none. 
Skin rather thin, tender, adhering closely to the flesh 
except for occasional folds. Flesh soft and delicate in 
texture, three-sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick, 
translucent golden brown in color with almost no 
fibre around the seed. Seed slender oblong, rounded 
at base, pointed at apex, fifteen-sixteenths inch long, 
five-sixteenths inch broad, smooth, cinnamon brown 
in color, the ventral channel open, germ pore slightly 
nearer base than apex. Flavor mild, not as sweet as 
Busreh Halawi, very pleasant but not rich. 

Halwa, Heloua, The Sweet, a small but good 
Algerian dry date, the palm of which is considered by 
Dr. L. Trabut of Algiers to be the most ornamental 
of any in the Sahara. It is tall but slender, the 
leaves recurving and graceful, the color strictly 
glaucous. The trunk presents a smoother appearance 
than that of most varieties, and the wood is declared 
by natives to be particularly resistant to rot. The 
fruit is supposed to have an aphrodisiacal quality, 
and cakes made from it are often presented to a bride 
and groom by their neighbors, as part of the wedding 
feast. The variety bears rather heavily, ripening its 
fruit early in October. 

The date is one and three-eighths inch long, 
five-eighths inch wide, broadest near center or a 
little below, tapering very slightly to broadly rounded 



242 DATE GROWING 

apex and flattened or depressed base. The thin, 
tender, and shiny skin adheres closely to the flesh but 
is wrinkled indiscriminately. Color tawny olive 
to golden brown, sometimes with ochraceous areas. 
Flesh one-eighth inch thick, firm but tender, often 
more like a soft than a dry date. Seed seven-eighths 
inch long, one-fourth broad, nearly uniform in width, 
rounded at both ends, usually with well-marked, 
wing-like ridges on the sides; ashy gray, neutral or 
otter brown in color, sometimes with a purplish 
tinge; ventral channel broad and moderately deep, 
usually open but sometimes closed in a small part of 
its area, germ pore in center. Flavor sweet, whole- 
some and agreeable. 

A variety brought from Tunisia by Kearney under 
the name of Halwa Baydha (Halooa Bayda) is 
also growing in the United States, and seems to be 
little different from the one described above. He 
describes it" as follows: 

Fruit one and one-third to one and one-half 
inch long, about one-half wide, elliptical in outline, 
not conspicuously narrowed at apex, widest near 
middle; dull purplish bay when ripe; the flesh one to 
one and one-half lines thick, becoming very firm 
and di-y; seed about seven-tenths as long as fruit 
and one-third to two-fifths as wide as long, ventral 
channel open. Branches of fruit clusters pale orange. 
Flavor simple, wholesome, and not excessively sweet; 
season October 10. 

Finally, natives of the Ziban distinguish a sub- 
variety, Laun ("the color of") al Halwa, which is 
slightly smaller — perhaps a seedling Halwa in origin. 



DATE VARIETIES 243 

Hamraya, Hamraia, The Red, one of the 
commonest names for a date variety among Arabs, 
and several have been introduced to Cahfornia 
under that designation. Hamraya of the Ziban, 
Algeria, is an attractive soft or dry date, fairly late 
in bearing but yields well. The natives have the 
idea that the stored dates are particularly likely 
to be attacked by worms, and that the tree is more 
subject than any other to the ravages of the Parlatoria 
scale, (Parlatoria blanchardi). The fruit may be 
described as follows: 

One and five-eighths inch long, three-fourths 
inch wide; usually broadest about middle, tapering 
very little to broadly rounded or flattened apex and 
flattened or depressed base. Color dark purplish 
maroon overspread by a faint bluish-gray bloom; 
but when well dried the thick, tough skin separates 
from the flesh and becomes fawn colored, or dark 
Isabella brown. Calyx persistent and dates remain 
attached to cluster indefinitely. When fresh and 
soft (rutab) the dates are a beautiful, bright red. 
Flesh one-eighth inch thick, deep golden brown, 
firm but not dry or hard. Seed one inch long, one- 
fourth wide, uniform throughout, of hazel color, 
base rounded, apex broadly pointed, ventral channel 
broad and partly closed, germ pore in center. Flavor 
pronounced, moderately sweet, not cloying. 

The Tunisian Hamraya is a dry date, which has 

not given particularly good results in Arizona. 

Kearney describes it under the name of Hamra, 

as follows: 

*He correctly points out that this is the proper name of the 
date, while the name Hamraya designates rather the palm which 
be^rs a Hamra date. In practice, the distinction is very rarely 
made among Arabs, however. Hamra is the feminine form of the 



244 DATE GROWING 

Fruit one and one-half to two inches long, about 
one-half as wide, egg-shaped, tapering from near the 
base to rounded apex; bright purplish maroon when 
ripe, the colors very handsome. Flesh one to three 
lines thick, becoming quite firm, the dark-colored 
outer zone thicker than the white, central portion; 
seed two-thirds to foiu'-fifths as long as the fruit, 
generally about two-fifths as wide as long, sometimes 
with strongly developed wing-like ridges on sides, 
ventral channel generally open, germ pore generally 
near middle but sometimes almost at base; flavor 
mediocre. Branches of fruit clusters cadmium orange. 
Season about November 1. Not much esteemed by 
natives; said to keep very well. 

A date of the same name, brought from the 
Mzab, has done well in the United States, although 
its keeping qualities are none too good. It is softer 
than the preceding, and a little larger; apparently 
there is not much difference between it and the 
Ziban Hamraya. 

All three varieties seem related, and probably 
several minor varieties of similar names* in Algeria 
are also related to them. While not of first quality, 
they will always have a certain amount of popularity 
because of their coloring. 

Hasan Efendi, a man's name, probably that of 
owner of the palm; a rare and commercially un- 

adjective; the masculine Ahmar is oftien found in conjunction with 
date variety names. 

*e. g., the Hamraya of Al Arus (The Bridegroom), which is 
sometimes called merely Hamraya, and from its description is about 
like that from the Ziban; Hamra Misdbeh, The Juicy Red, "a small 
date with large seed; red, later turning black"; Hamr4 Bishrf, 
variously described as a soft or dry date; Ahmar bu Amar, etc. 



DATE VARIETIES 245 

important Baghdad date, somewhat similar to 
Maktum. It bore at Indio, California, for the first 
time this year. Fairly early. 

Hasawi, "From Hasa, " an uncommon date at 
Busreh, but much prized. As to its history I know 
nothing, but its name and general appearance lead 
me to think it might be a degenerate form of the 
Khalaseh of Hasa, or even a seedling of that variety. 
The fruit is described as bearing a close resemblance 
to Halawi, ripening among the earliest (in the first 
part of September), good to eat at any stage, and 
keeping well when packed. The annual yield of a 
palm is large, but does not begin so early as Halawi 
or Khadhrawi. New to America. 

Hayani, see Birket al Hajji. 

Hilali, Hellali, Moonbeams, a soft date grown in 
the Persian Gulf plantations, and noteworthy as the 
latest of the region. It is fairly common in Oman and 
at Busreh, and provides fresh (rutab) dates up to 
December. In this condition it is the most delicious 
I have ever tasted. Has been successful in the 
United States, but will never be desirable for planting 
on a large scale because of its tardy maturity. In the 
Persian Gulf region this date is sometimes boiled for 
preservation; it does not cure well naturally. Fruit 
one and one-fourth inch long, one inch wide, broadest 
just below apex, which is very broad and blunt. Color 
golden yellow shading to straw at the base. Flesh 
soft and delicate, melting, golden yellow in color; 
thick. Seed small, slight amount of fibre. A shy 
bearer. 



246 DATEGROWING 

Hurra, Horra, Harra, Herra, Hourra, The 
Noble (i.e., well-born), a large and attractive dry 
date from Algeria and Tunisia, which has given 
good results in the United States. In some parts 
of Tunisia where Deglet Niir is not grown, Hurra 
is considered the finest date, and many French 
residents prefer it to the softer and sweeter dessert 
date. The palm, which ripens its fruits in October, 
is resistant to alkali and seems to thrive without a 
great deal of care. 

The date is two inches long, one-half as wide, 
ovate, narrowed from the base to the rounded apex, 
rather dull purplish maroon in color, with pro- 
nounced bloom : (in Algeria it is lighter in color and 
correspondingly more attractive in appearance). 
Flesh three-sixteenths inch thick, white central 
zone much thicker than dark outer portion; firm, 
becoming dry but never hard or brittle. Seed 
irregular in size, averaging one inch long and two- 
fifths as wide, ventral channel closed, germ pore 
above middle, sometimes near apex. Flavor rich 
and nutty. (Kearney.) 

Huwayzi, Hwezi, named after town of Huwayzeh 
on coast of Persia, famous since antiquity for its 
dates. The name is often corrupted to Hevezi, 
and frequently confounded with 'Awaydi. A choice 
Busreh soft date which is usually eaten fresh; the 
Arabs say it is inferior when cured, but this statement 
is hardly justified. A fairly long, slender date, more 
or less similar to Halawl both in shape and color, 
which is light brown. Ripens the last week of 
September, The palm bears well from an early age, 
but is not common. Flavor delicate and pleasant. 



DATE VARIETIES 247 

The fruit will keep for five or six months in good 
condition; experimental shipments to New York have 
been successful, 

Ibrahirai, Abraham's Date, a variety so much 
confused with Brim and Sayyid Ibrahim that it is 
difficult to get a full description of it at Baghdad, 
where it is rather rare. It is one of the earliest dates 
of the region, ripening late in July if the season is 
favorable. It is large and fat, short in proportion 
to its breadth; its color when fresh is sorrel, but 
becomes darker when cured. The palm is said to 
yield well, and the fresh dates to be good, but if allowed 
to remain on the tree they take on a rather un- 
pleasant flavor. For this reason it is not often packed, 
although it is not too soft to keep well. 

Ibrahimi, vulgarly Ibrimi, Abraham's Date, 
one of the largest and most famous of Nubian dates, 
sometimes reaching a length of three and one-half 
inches, according to Schweinfurth. It is a common 
variety, growing in sandy soil. In form it is usually 
slightly curved, and tapering; almost cylindrical. 
Can be eaten when soft and fresh, when its color is 
yellowish-red; later the flesh, which is thick, becomes 
firm and almost dry, sweet and delicate in flavor; the 
base of the fruit turns chestnut in color while the 
apex usually remains red. The seed is very dark 
browTi, and small. The flavor is sometimes compared 
to that of a carob (Ceratonia siliqua). Season, 
September. 

One of the centers of culture of this variety is the 
town of Sukkut, where an improved type is supposed 
to be found; hence it is often called Sukkuti, or, 
vulgarly, Scotty. 



248 DATEGROWING 

Specimens in the United States are still too 
young to have borne fruit. 

Itima, see Yatimeh. 

Kanta, Kenta, The Vigorous, a highly prized 
dry date both in North Africa and the United States. 
It is of medium size, attractive in color, of good 
flavor, bears heavily, keeps remarkably well, and 
ripens comparatively early. 

Kearney was told that it frequently bore 330 
pounds of fruit, and heard of one tree that was said 
to have borne 770 pounds, and others 200 years old 
that bore 265 pounds of fruit annually. The tall, 
stout palm is characterized by broad leaves with 
numerous long, rather narrow leaflets. The long 
leafstalks are spiny only near the base. Light 
orange stalks of fruit-clusters are stout and horizontal 
or ascending, and so short that with the bunches they 
do not equal the leafstalks. The clusters themselves 
are short, thick and densely crowded with fruit. 
The palm seems to be resistant to alkali if it is on 
well-drained soil. 

The fruit keeps even better than most dry dates, 
never losing its shape or becoming hard and brittle. 
Its season is early October. 

The date is one and one-third to one and two- 
thirds inch long, about one-half as wide, narrowed 
from the middle or above it to the broad apex, dull 
bay colored when ripe, the skin rufous or hazel colored, 
smooth, much loosened in large blisters. Flesh one- 
eighth to three-sixteenths inch thick, dry but not 
hard. Seed somewhat more than one-half as long as 
the fruit, one-third to two-fifths as wide as it is long, 




HOW THEY PACK DATES AT BUSREH, ARABIA 
For export the fruit is shipped in seventy-two pound boxes. The final act 
of the packer is to jump on top of the fruit in order to press it down more firmly. 



DATE VARIETIES 249 

rounded at both ends, Isabella brown in color, ventral 
channel narrow, open, germ pore above the middle. 
Flavor pleasantly sweet, wholesome, nutty. 
(Kearney.) 

Kasbeh, Kesba, Kessebi, El Kseba, The 
Profitable, a widespread variety in Algeria and 
Tunisia, which goes back to the beginnings of the 
scientific date industry in that region,* and before 
the origin of Deglet Nur held the place which that 
variety now holds as the undisputed leader. This 
|)Osition was due not only to its intrinsic merits but 
to the fact that it is one of the famous dates of Madina 
— the Sayhani — and is connected in a most honorable 
way with the prophet himself. It is related that 
Muhammad happened to pass under it, holding the 
hand of his son-in-law 'All, whereupon the palm 
cried, "This is Muhammad, the Prince of Prophets 
and this is 'All, Prince of the Pious and the Progenitor 
of the Immaculate Imams." Hence its name, "The 
Crier, "t and the veneration in which it has always 
been held, so that it has been spread throughout the 
Arabic world and is held in esteem wherever it grows. 

*Arabs accept two theories as to the origin of the date planta- 
tions of Northern Africa: that they are the result of palms brought 
back by the first pilgrims from that region who visited Mecca and 
Madina; and that they were introduced by "The Lord of the Two 
Horns," a seteii-mythical personage who in ,this case is perhaps 
Alexander Severus. Both these ideas are romance, for the date was 
probably established here long before the Christian era. See Pliny, 
in loc. 

fit is not the only variety which was moved to utterance by the 
presence of Muhammad. Al Wahshi bent its head and said, "Peace 
be upon you," when it saw the prophet once eating its fruit; while 
a palm of unknown variety, by the trunk of which he used to preach, 
gave a loud groan when he left it in favor of a regularly-made pulpit. 
Muhammad thereupon went to it and embraced it, saying to his 
companions, "If I had not embraced it, it would have continued 
groaning imtil the day of resurrection." Ibn BatiUah, ed. Paris, 
1853, vol. I, p. 275. 



250 DATEGROWING 

Al Bakri says,* in the eleventh century, "One finds 
at Biskra all varieties of dates: that which is called 
Al Kasbeh, and which is identical with Sayhani, 
surpasses all the others, to the extent that it has a 
proverbial reputation;" and even up to the present 
century this variety has always been specified in 
making a charm to cure malaria. Readers who live 
in mosquito-infested regions may be glad to possess 
the secret: you take three date seeds of this variety, 
write on the first Karun, on the second Arun and on 
the third Harun;t throw one of them into a fire each 
day at the time when the chill is due, and by the third 
day you will be entirely cured, if it be the will of God. 

The date is of medium size, and soft, but is 
sometimes allowed to dry on the tree, when it becomes 
a typical dry date, of good consistency. The Arabs 
of Algeria regularly ripen it by a slow artificial process, 
picking it about September 15 and putting it in a 
bag ; in ten days it is ripe, juicy , and yellow in color. If 
left on the palm, it ripens about October 1. As the 
flavor is good and the keeping and shipping qualities 
leave nothing to be desired, this date has become 
justly valued in the United States. 

The foliage is characterized by having few spines, 
and these slender and weak. The branches of the 
fruit-clusters are deep orange. 

The fruit itself is one and three-quarters inch 
long, three-quarters inch broad, widest near base, 
thence tapering slightly to bluntly pointed apex and 
flattened or depressed base. Golden brown to 

*A1 Bakri, Descr. of No. Africa, tr. by M. de Slane. Paris, 
1869, p. 126. The book was finished in 1068 A. D. 

fThese are doubtless the names of demons whom it is hoped to 
destroy. 



DATE VARIETIES 251 

chestnut in color. Skin thin but fairly tough, 
usually adhering closely to flesh but sometimes 
loosely wrinkled in large, longitudinal folds. Flesh 
three-sixteenths inch thick, soft in fresh specimens, 
firm when they are well cured, but never hard or dry. 
Seed large, fifteen-sixteenths inch long, three-eighths 
broad, cinnamon brown to chamois in color, ventral 
channel open and deep, germ pore slightly nearer 
base than apex. Flavor sweet, slightly heavy but 
not cloying. 

Few Algerian dates have more sub-varieties than 
this — in California alone two palms have been grown 
under the name, one of them producing a soft and the 
other a dry date. In Algeria there are a dry date 
known as "Medjel Kesseba" and a large and excellent 
but very rare soft date knowTi as the Kasbeh of 
Bin Abdu-1 Aziz, which is longer, darker in color 
(looking much like Yatimeh) and softer than Kasbeh. 
The flesh is thicker and seed smaller, darker, and more 
tapering, the germ pore nearer apex than base. The 
skin wrinkles more profusely in longitudinal folds; 
the flavor is milder. Despite its name, I do not 
think this excellent date has any relationsliip to 
Kasbeh. 

There is, however, another date which has 
been introduced to California, which apparently has 
a genuine relationship— Nakhleh Zianeh (q.v.) which 
in some districts is called Latin al Kasbeh, i.e., the 
Color of Kasbeh, a word which suggests that it 
originated as a seedling of the more famous variety. 

Finally, there is an excellent little dry date of 
Algeria, which has also been introduced to California 
but has not yet fruited, that is called Kasbet Amireh, 
i.e., the Kasbeh of a woman named Amireh. This is 



252 DATEGROWING 

slightly smaller than Kasbeh, and is said to be less 
affected by rain at the time of ripening than any other 
variety of the region. 

Khadhrawi, Khadrawi, Khudrawee, The 
Verdant.* Next to Halawi, the most important 
of the Busreh dates, and the staple diet of wealthy 
Arabs, who rarely offer any other kind to visitors. 
It has proved itself better adapted to conditions in 
California and Arizona than any other Persian 
Gulf variety yet tested, and this fact and its excel- 
lent qualities insure it a permanent place in plantations 
here. It has the advantage of bearing fruit earlier 
than any other offshoot at Busreh; sometimes in the 
second year after planting and usually in the third, 
if given good care. It ripens its dates onlj'- a few 
days later than Halawi (say September 15), and 
bears a heavy crop. Its mild, satisfying flavor, 
which never cloys the palate, and its "coldness," 
cause its use" in great quantities even at Baghdad, 
where it brings as high a price as Khustawi and many 
other dessert dates. It is grown only to slight extent 
at Baghdad, but is rather more common at Mandali 
and Diyala, where the growers consider it is a little 
larger in size than the Busreh product. The palm 
is vigorous and healthy; conspicuous for the length of 
its spines (sometimes six inches), which make a wide 
angle with the petiole. 

As seen at Busreh, the fruit is oblong to oblong- 
elliptical, widest at or near center, thence tapering 
slightly to the broad, somewhat flattened base, and 

*The root means simply green, and doubtless refers to the foliage 
of the palm. Classical lexicographers pretend the variety was so 
named because the fruit falls while still green, but as that is not the 
fact, their etymology must be considered fanciful. 



DATE VARIETIES 253 

the rounded to broadly pointed apex. Size medium 
large, the length being one and one-fourth to one and 
three-fovu-ths inch, width three-fourths to seven- 
eighths inch; surface fairly smooth, translucent deep 
orange brown to light brown in color, overspread 
with a thin, bluish-gray bloom; skin firm, medium 
thick, and fairly tough, rarely wrinkled but often 
separating from the flesh in folds or blisters. Flesh 
firm and meaty, translucent amber brown in color, 
three-sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick. Seed 
oblong-obovate to oblong-elhptical, blunt at base 
and broadly pointed at apex, seven-eighths inch long, 
three-eighths wide; smooth, grayish brown or russet 
in color, ventral channel narrow or almost closed. 
Flavor rich and extremely pleasant, never cloying 
the palate, though it be eaten in quantity every day. 

Khalaseh, Khalasa, IQialasi, Khalas, Quint- 
essence, a name well describing the Arabic estimate 
of this, the most famous date of the Persian Gulf 
region. Its home is around the town of Hofhuf in 
the district of Al Hasa, anciently called Hajar; the 
variety has been spread to Oman, Busreh, some of 
the Persian coast districts, and I even found one 
palm at Baghdad. Its fruit was formerly exported 
very widely, to Mesopotamia, India, and even Zanzi- 
bar; of late years almost the whole of the yield has 
been absorbed by the nomads of the interior of 
Arabia, who are thorough connoisseurs of dates, and 
send their caravans each year to Hofhuf to carry 
off as great a quantity of this variety as is obtainable. 

Little definite information is available regarding 
the culture of this date in its native home, but it 
would appear to be fairly plentiful, for the Turkish 



254 DATE GROWING 

census of 1871 counts 2,000,000 palms around Hofliiif . 
Our principal authority is the English Jesuit Palgrave * 
who was, I believe, the first to bring the variety to 
notice in recent years. He writes: 

"Almost the whole space between Hofhoof and 
Mebarraz, a distance of about three miles, is filled 
up with gardens, plantations and rushing streams of 
water. Here and for many leagues around grow the 
dates entitled Khalas — a word of which the Uteral 
and not inappropriate English translation is 'quint- 
essence,' a species peculiar to Hasa and facile 
princeps of its kinds. The fruit itself is rather 
smaller than the Kaseem date, of a rich amber color, 
verging on ruddiness, and semi-transparent. It 
would be absurd to attempt by description to give 
any idea of its taste; but I beg my Indian readers at 
least to beUeve that a 'Massigaum' mango is not 
more superior to a 'Junglee' than is the Khalas 
fruit to that current in Syrian and Egyptian marts. 
In a word, it is the perfection of the date. The tree 
that bears it may by a moderately practiced eye 
be recognized by its stem, slenderer than that of the 
ordinary palm, its less tufted foliage and its smoother 

bark As to the Khalas in particular, its cultivation 

is an important item among the rural occupations of 
Hasa, its harvest an abundant source of wealth, and 
its exportation, which reaches from Mosoul on the 
northwest to Bombay on the southeast, nay, I believe, 
to the African coast of Zanjibar, forms a large branch 
of local commerce. " 

In the half century since this was written, Hasa 
has been entered only by two or three explorers, 
none of whom has added much to this account. I 

*Palgrave, W. G. Narrative of a Year's Journey in Central and 
Eastern Arabia. London, 1863. 



DATE VARIETIES 255 

tried to visit Hofhuf in 1912 but was forbidden by 
the Turkish authorities to land, as they refused to 
be answerable for my safety; and in this they were 
absolutely justified, since earlier in the year a newly 
appointed governor had been held up on the coast for 
weeks, buying up some of the nomadic shaykhs and 
collecting a big enough escort to force his way through 
the rest who blocked his progress to his capital. 
Since then the Arabs have risen and expelled the 
garrison, and the province is plunged into an anarchy 
which will probably make it impossible to secure any 
more oflfshoots for some years to come. 

In Wadi Samail of Oman, however, I found 
nearly 1000 palms of this variety, and was told by 
natives that in some of the interior oases it was quite 
common. The fruit is of good quality there, but is 
admitted by its owners to be not equal to that of 
Hasa; at Busreh and other coast localities it is inferior; 
at Baghdad good. It may be concluded, then, that 
this palm likes a dry situation, and, probably, sandy 
soil. In Hasa it is irrigated copiously, and largely 
from hot springs; this may be one of the secrets 
of its excellence. It ripens September 1, or earlier, 
and the yield is only moderate — from 100 to 125 
pounds a year. It bears fruit at an early age after 
being planted; offshoots are considered fairly hardy. 
Only a limited quantity of fruit is placed on sale in 
the Persian Gulf region nowadays, but it brings twice 
the price of other varieties. It is usually packed in 
five-gallon kerosene cans, to protect it from sand on 
the caravan route to the coast; for the interior trade, 
I presume that it is packed in skins and palm-leaf 
baskets. In Oman one of the favorite methods of 
keeping it is to extract the seeds and make it into 



256 D A T E G R O W I N G 

a paste which is kept in cans; thus treated it will 
keep indefinitely, and is more attractive than the 
paste of any other variety of date. There is still 
some export from Oman to Zanzibar, particularly in 
the form of presents from Omani growers to their 
relatives in the African island (for that part of 
Africa was colonized, and the slave trade exploited, 
by Arabs from Oman; and for years Zanzibar formed 
an integral part of the latter kingdom.) 

Although the variety comes from a frostless 
locality, it has proved entirely hardy at Baghdad, 
and there is every reason to suppose that it will be 
exactly adapted to conditions in such a region as 
Coachella Valley. It has not yet fruited in the 
United States; several attempts were made during 
the last decade to introduce it, principally with off- 
shoots secured on the island of Bahrayn, but all 
failed. This year, however, it was imported by the 
West India Gardens on a scale large enough to give 
every chance of success. I secured 100 offshoots in 
the oases of Oman, and although prevented from 
entering Hasa personally, was yet able to secure 400 
offshoots from that region, through the kindness of 
Rev. Gerrit J. Pennings of the American Mission on 
the island of Bahrayn. He secured for me the 
services of a capable native, Abdallah b. Mubarak, 
who was willing to take the risks of a trip to the 
interior, and who carried out his commission with 
ability, in the face of a good deal of personal danger, 
although he was not able to prevent Beduin raiders 
from getting away with several camel loads of the 
precious plants, on his way back to the coast. 

The variety is, in my opinion, fully equal to 
Deglet Nur, being even lighter in color and having 



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DATE VARIETIES 257 

more of the characteristic flavor which is usually 
associated with the date. By Arab packing it 
sometimes becomes soft, but by American methods 
it should pack fully as well as the North African date, 
and 1 believe that when American Khalasehs are 
put on the market they will be considered as fine a 
date as the world can produce. The following 
description is of specimens obtained directly from 
Hofhuf: Form oblong to oblong-ovate, slightly 
widest at or near the center, rounded or slightly 
flattened at the base, rounded to broadly pointed at 
the apex. Of firm, solid consistency, keeping shape 
excellently. Size medium, length one and three- 
eighths to one and five-eighths inch, breadth 
three-fourths to seven-eighths inch. Surface slightly 
sticky, rather smoother than the average, with a 
delicate satiny sheen. Color light orange brown with 
a tinge of ruddiness or deep reddish amber. So 
translucent that the outline of the seed can almost 
be seen. Bloom slight, bluish gray. Skin firm but 
quite tender, adhering closely except for an occasional 
small fold or blister, loosely wrinkled indiscriminately, 
but not deeply so. Flesh firm and solid but very 
tender, caramel-like in consistency, of delicate texture, 
one-quarter inch in thickness, reddish amber in color 
and entirely free from fibre. Seed oblong-elliptical, 
slightly pointed at both base and apex, three-fourths 
to seven-eighths inch in length, one-quarter to three- 
eighths inch in breadth, broadest near center, smooth, 
gray-brown in color, ventral channel almost or 
wholly closed. Flavor delicate, but deliciously bring- 
ing out the characteristic date taste. 



268 D A T E G R O W I N G 

Khanayzi, Khanezi, said to be the name of a 
tribe; a soft date from Oman, also found in limited 
quantity at Busreh. It is considered one of the best 
general purpose varieties of the region and is eaten 
fresh, cured or boiled. In appearance it closely 
resembles Khasab, but is earlier, ripening in September. 
The yield varies greatly, sometimes being large and 
in other years insignificant, but it is probable that 
this characteristic will be overcome by proper treat- 
ment. The only specimens which I have seen were 
boiled; they may be described as follows: 

Length one and one-fourth inch, breadth eleven- 
sixteenths, usually broadest about middle; apex 
bluntly pointed. Dark reddish brown in color 
(this is said to be the color of the fresh date, too). 
Flesh one-eighth to three-sixteenths inch thick; 
soft, not brittle. Seed small but thick; three-fourths 
inch long, one-fourth wide; tight in cavity; no fibre. 
Flavor of the. boiled date insignificant, but when 
fresh the variety is considered of first quality. 

Khustawi, Khastawi, Kustawi, originally 
Khastawani (Pers.), The Date of the Grandees, 
a delicious dessert date, the most important of its 
type at Baghdad, from a commercial viewpoint, and 
one that has proved admirably adapted to American 
conditions. At Baghdad it is considered a rather 
shy bearer, in comparison with the commoner Zahidi, 
although the yield is from 75 to 150 pounds. The 
dates ripen fairly early, in the first half of September. 
They pack well and keep well; Arabs assert that 
they are the least liable to attacks of worms. This 
date is certain always to be a favorite with those who 
like the richer and sweeter varieties of this fruit. 



DATE VARIETIES 259 

Arabs easily distinguish the palm in a plantation 
by the dark yellowish color of the petioles and lower 
part of the leaves, as compared, for instance, with the 
lighter colored and strictly glaucous Zahidi. Its 
spines are stout but rather short, inclined at a sharp 
angle to the petiole. Offshoots are always small in 
size. 

In form, the date is oblong-oval, broadest near 
center and narrowing gradually toward the rounded 
or slightly flattened base and the rounded apex. 
Size medium, length one to one and one-half inch, 
breadth three-fourths to seven-eighths inch. Surface 
smooth, glossy, translucent orange brown to bright 
brown in color, bloom unnoticeable. Skin rather 
thin and delicate, usually without wrinkles or folds, 
adhering closely to the flesh, which is translucent 
golden brown in color, entirely free from fibre around 
seed, one-fourth inch thick, possessing the caramel 
consistency to a high degree. Seed small, oblong- 
obovate, slightly pointed at each end, three-quarters 
inch long, five-sixteenths inch wide, smooth, russet, 
ventral channel open. Flavor unusually rich on 
account of the syrup with which the whole fruit is 
filled, yet not cloying; the characteristic date taste 
pronounced. 

Laqu, Lagoo, Lagou, The Distorted Mouth (?) 
from its peculiar curved outline; the word originally 
means a kind of facial paralysis. An early and 
esteemed Tunisian soft date which has given good 
results in California. It is an important date in the 
native export trade, because of its excellent shipping 
qualities and the fact that it keeps its shape well. 
Ripens in September. 



260 D A T E G R O W I N G 

The crown of foliage on a Laqu palm is rather 
small, leaves short and rather stifiP, with long and 
rather wide leaflets. The short, densely crowded 
fruit-clusters do not equal the leafstalks. Stalks and 
branches of the fruit-clusters are orange colored. 

The date, as grown in California, is one and 
three-fourths inch long, three fourths inch wide, 
bay, chestnut or maroon in color; oblong but usually 
slightly curved, base flattened, usually depressed, 
apex broadly pointed. Skin fairly thick but tender, 
shiny, ochraceous, often raised in large blisters but 
not otherwise wrinkled or creased. Flesh one-eighth 
inch thick, golden brown in color, rather tough. Seed 
one and one-eighth inch long, five-sixteenths wide, 
tapering very little from rounded base to broadly 
pointed apex, russet color, surface roughened, ventral 
channel open, germ pore below middle if distinguish- 
able. Flavor sweet, heavy. 

Majhul, . Medjool, Medjeheul, "Unknown,"* 
such a strange name for a date that its authenticity 
has been questioned; yet it seems that this is the name 
by which it is actually known in commerce in the 
Tafilalet region and Southern Algeria today. It is 
worthy of note, however, that the travelers who 
explored the Tafilalet oases in the last century do not 
mention any date of that name among the famous 
ones of the region. f As a result of an investigation 

*Perfect passive participle of the common verb jahal, "to be 
ignorant." There is a date with the same name in Madina, Arabia. 

jGerhardt Rohlfs (Reise dm-ch Marokko, Bremen, 1868) says 
the best are Bii Zakri (which has been famous in the Sahara for 
centuries), Bii Hafs and Faqqiis. W. B. Harris (Tafilet, London, 
1895) says the best are Bii Zakri and "Bou Kefous" by which he 
doubtless means Faqqus. Both these varieties, or at least ones with 
identical names, are still found in Southern Tunisia. In the time of 
Edrisi (A. D. 1154) the best Tafilalet date was Al Birni (Geography, 
p. 70; tr. by Dozy and De Goeje, Leyden, 1866). 



DATE VARIETIES 261 

recently made by French authorities, it was learned 
that some of the educated natives considered that the 
name was originally Madqiil,* which would be perhaps 
an ungrammatical variation on the word Deglet; this 
is quite possible, but in any event the significance of 
the name would be the same, pointing to an ad- 
ventitious variety which could not be related to any 
of those formerly known by the oasis dwellers. In 
the United States the date is probably more often 
called merely by the name of its locality, Tafilalet,t 
and in London, the principal market for the variety, 
it regularly passes under the corruption of Tafilat. 
The Tafilalet oases, in the Saharan part of 
Morocco, have for centuries been famous for their 
dates, which probably owe their excellence to the 
intense and long-continued summer heat, the 
abundant water supply, and the skilful cultivation by 
the residents. Even in the seventeenth century we 
are told that "Most of the dates which are brought 
into Europe are transported from Tafilalet ".t An 
examination of the seedling dates of Spain suggests 
that many of them are seedlings of Majhul; there is 
a fine avenue of old palms near Malaga which can be 
identified as this variety with a good deal of certainty. 
Many of the seedlings gro^STi on the Pacific coast of 
Mexico seem to be of the same strain. Thousands of 

*Vulgar perfect passive participle of verb adqal, "to bear daqal 
dates." There is an Algerian variety named Mudqal, which is the 
correct form. 

fThis I consider to be the correct spelling. The name is founded 
on Filal, a district in Arabia from which the original settlers are 
reputed to have come. The initial Ta is a Berber word oftener seen 
in the form Ait, and means "sons of," while the final syllable is 
merely a grammatical addition to make the word feminine. The 
name, therefore, tells that this is the district peopled by Filal immi- 
grants. The French often use the contraction Tafilelt. 

JOgilby, John. Africa, p. 105. London, 1670. 



262 D A T E G R O W I N G 

seedlings have been planted in the United States 
during the past few years, but up to the present it 
has been impossible to secure offshoots on a commercial 
scale because of the state of anarchy and warfare in 
which Morocco is sunk; a few authentic offshoots have 
nevertheless been brought to Southern California by 
the Bureau of Plant Industry and the West India 
Gardens of Altadena. It will be obvious, however, 
that the variety has not yet had a test in the United 
States, and all plantations of it are made merely 
because of its general merit and commercial reputation. 

The region has never been visited by a date 
expert, but Fi-ench military authorities have secured 
as much information as possible about Majhul, at 
the request of Dr. L. Trabut, botanist to the Algerian 
government, and through his courtesy I was given 
access to their reports. 

Majhul, says Lieut. Neigel,* is found in large 
quantity in all the oases of Tafilalet, particularly in 
those of Ghorfa and Er Reteb, but is not so abundant 
as other varieties of inferior quality. The people 
themselves live on these inferior dates, most of the 
Majhul being exported. Those from Er Reteb are 
considered the finest and largest. The variety is 
propagated only by offshoots, which, transplanted in 
February or March, bear in from four to six years. 
They do not demand any more care than other 
varieties. 

The dates are artificially ripened, as follows; 
after the dates have turned completely yellow the 
bunch is cut and they are picked from it, care being 
taken not to detach the calyx from the fruit, as this 
would permit the entrance of dirt and insects. They 

♦Report dated March 26, 1912. 



DATE VARIETIES 26S 

are then spread on the ground in the sunshine for a 
week, but it appears that thej^ are not removed or 
protected in any way at night, the chill air being 
supposed to make them firmer. They are turned 
over daily, and as they become sufficiently soft they 
are sorted out and stored until exported. 

The price in Tafilalet at harvest time varies 
according to the abundance of the crop, from thirty- 
five to ninety cents the abbar, a weight of about 
fourteen pounds. Three-fonrths of them are exported 
via the South Algerian Railway and Oran, the rest 
via Fez in Morocco. England gets the bulk of the 
crop, but there is also a steady demand from Spain; 
in each country they command the top market price. 

The dates usually arrive in London just before 
Christmas, and there is a great demand for the first 
ones, the price at wholesale sometimes reaching ninety- 
tv.o shillings per hundredweight. The average whole- 
sale price, later in the season, is forty or fifty shillings, 
and they are sold by retailers at twenty to twenty-five 
cents a pound, while the Persian Gulf and Egyptian 
dates bring five to ten cents a pound. In Spain the 
price is usually about twenty-five cents. At present 
practically none of these dates reach the American 
market. 

The variety is evidently late in maturing, and 
probably will be suited only to the hottest and dryest 
regions in the United States, such as Coachella or 
Imperial Valley. Because of its large size and good 
keeping and shipping qualities, it promises to be a very 
profitable one if it can be successfully grown in this 
country. It may be technically described as follows: 

Form broadly oblong varying to oblong-ovate, 
two inches in length, one and one-fourth in breadth. 



264 D A T E G R O W I N G 

broadest near center or slightly nearer basal end and 
narrowing slightly toward the broadly flattened base 
and broadly pointed apex; surface deeply wrinkled 
and creased indiscriminately, bright bay to deep 
reddish brown in color (the light bay color is perhaps 
due to crystallizing of sugar under the skin) . Skin very 
thin and tender, adhering closely to flesh over the 
entire fruit. Flesh firm, meaty, nearly three-eighths 
inch thick, brownish-amber in color, translucent, with 
practically no fibre around seed. Seed one and one- 
fourth inch long, three-eighths inch wide, elliptical 
in form but slightly widest near apex; smooth, brown- 
ish gray, germ pore nearer base, ventral channel 
almost closed. Flavor rich and delicious, the char- 
acteristic taste of the date being pronounced. 

Makantishi, M'Kentichi, Amekentichi, Em- 
kentishi, Kenteeshy, Kentichi; (the word Degla is 
often added to the name and it is frequently confused 
with Mashi Degla of similar appearance), The 
Early Arriving. A small dry date which is very 
common in Algeria, probably because it demands 
little irrigation or fertilization. Mountain dwellers 
prefer it as a steady diet, and in the oases it is con- 
sidered the best food for children — perhaps because 
it is cheap. It can be eaten when fresh and soft 
(rutab) as well as dry. In spite of its name, it is 
not particularly precocious, but bears fairly heavily. 
Offshoots are notably vigorous and hardy. It has 
done well in the United States, but it is never likely 
to have great value, as there are so many larger and 
better dry dates. It is worth noting, however, that 
this is one of the two dates which have been found, 
in which the contents remain predominantly cane 



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DATE VARIETIES 265 

sugar to the very end (the other is Deglet Nur.) 
The fruit is one and three-eighths inch long, 
eleven-sixteenths wide, often slightly curved, broadest 
at or below middle, tapering slowly to flattened base 
and more abruptly to bluntly pointed apex. Color 
deep chrome to saffron, with a slight reddish bloom. 
The dull, thin, and tender skin adheres closely to the 
flesh, which is raised in ridges and furrows, mostly 
longitudinal. Flesh one-eighth inch tliick, nearly 
white, hard and dry but rarely brittle. Seed one inch 
long, five-sixteenths wide, rounded at both ends, 
russet to M^ood bro\Mi in color; ventral channel open 
or partly closed, germ pore slightly nearer apex. 
Flavor sweet and nutty, with almost no astringency; 
agreeable. 

The palm is tall and stout, strong and vigorous, 
with coarse, heavy foliage, long leaves, and numerous 
but rather distant long and broad leaflets. Branches 
of fruit-clusters orange buff; their stalks are curved, 
forming nearly a semi-circle, but do not hang down 
below the foliage. Thrives in poor soil and is con- 
sidered resistant to alkali. Reported to Kearney 
as one of the most productive varieties in Tunisia, 
and so highly esteemed by natives that they are 
reluctant to part with offshoots. 

Makturn, Maktoom, originally Makdum, The 
Bitten, because of the short, transverse scars on the 
skin, which, to x\rab imagination, resemble the 
imprints of a miniature set of teeth. A rare variety, 
but as good as any in Mesopotamia; it has proved 
itself admirably adapted to California and Arizona 
conditions as well, and can unhesitatingly be recom- 
mended for commercial planting. It is certain to 



266 DATEGROWING 

have a permanent popularity, not only because of its 
superior quality but because of its relatively large 
size. It is not common even around Baghdad, and 
always brings a high price in the market; the com- 
mercial supply seems to come from Mandali, Karbala, 
and Hilleh. At Busreh it is very rare, ripens about 
October 1, and is reputed to be a shy bearer. There is 
also a small date of the same name at Busreh, which 
I did not see, but which is considered almost worthless, 
and Arabs say that it is merely a degenerated form 
of the same superb variety. 

At Baghdad it ripens late in September or early 
in October, and is said to bear slightly less than 
Khustawi. It is difficult to account for the scarcity 
of palms of this variety in Mesopotamia, unless it be 
because the Arabs object to its light yield; for it has 
almost every other desirable quality. The market 
is usually cleaned of Maktum dates within a short 
time after the harvest, and no offshoots are so ex- 
pensive. 

In the United States the variety has given a 
heavier yield, due probably to the better care which it 
receives. Even under the unfavorable climatic con- 
ditions of the Tempe, Arizona, garden, the fruit is 
firm enough to pack in small boxes and sell as a 
dessert date, its luscious flavor appealing to nearly 
everyone. The palm there shows decided vigor in 
growth; the fruit ripens a little later than Halawi, 
and is practically immune from damage either by 
winter or summer rains. 

*Cf. report of Major F. E. Crow, British Consul at Busreh, in 
Kew Bui. No. 7, p. 286, London, 1908: "Maktum, much smaller 
than Chibchab, and used for the same purpose," i. e., boiled. The 
occasional degeneracy of the best varieties, like Deglet Niir, Khalaseh 
and Maktum is a subject which merits study, and anyone observing 
such instances should report on them. 



DATE VARIETIES 267 

The fruit, as grown at Baghdad, is in form very 
broadly oblong to oblong-obovate, usually slightly 
broader near center of fruit and narrowing almost 
imperceptibly toward the flattened base and the 
flattened to broadly rounded or abrupt apex. Size 
medium large to large, dimensions being: length, 
one and one-fourth to one and one-half inch, 
breadth at widest point, seven-eighths to one inch. 
Surface uneven, somewhat glossy, a beautiful, trans- 
lucent, golden brown in color, overspread with a thin, 
bluish-gray bloom. Skin firm, medium thick but 
not tough, deeply wrinkled in all directions and 
occasionally separating from the flesh to form coarse 
folds and blisters. Flesh light golden brown, trans- 
lucent, very delicate in texture, soft and almost 
melting in the mouth, three-eighths to five-eighths 
inch thick. Seed broadly oblong, rounded to blunt 
at base and tapering sharply to apex, length three- 
fourths to seven-eighths inch, breadth five-sixteenths 
inch, surface fairly smooth, cinnamon brown in 
color, ventral channel almost or wholly closed. 
Flavor very mild, with only a suggestion of the 
characteristic taste of the date, in which respect it 
resembles the Saharan Deglet Nur more closely than 
any other Mesopotamian date; sweet but not too 
much so; extremely pleasant and not cloying, as it 
contains little syrup. 

Fruit grown in California is similar; firm enough 
to be handled and pack well, but the flesh remains 
tender and melting even after the lapse of a year. 
After some months, however, the evaporation of 
moisture leaves the skin in large blisters of a tawny 
olive color. 



268 DATEGROWING 

Maktiim Ahmar, The Red Maktum, is dis- 
tinguished by the Arabs as a separate variety, al- 
though it is merely an inferior form of the preceding, 
which is sometimes called Maktum Asfar ("yellow"). 
The red variety is a little darker in color, and the 
flavor is said to be not quite so good, but it is rare 
and commercially of no importance. 

Manakhir, Menakher, Monakhir, The Nose 
Date (lit., The Nostrils), a rare, large, and desirable 
variety from Tunisia. The only specimens in the 
United States are owned by the Department of 
Agriculture, and there seems little chance of getting 
more, as the palm is almost extinct in Tunisia. The 
natives account for this by the story that their 
rulers, under the old regime, acquired a great fondness 
for the date, and sent agents into the region at harvest 
time to appropriate the entire crop, which they 
usually forgot to pay for. Consequently the owners 
decided it would be more profitable to them to grow 
a poorer date which they themselves could enjoy, and 
stopped planting Manakhir offshoots, even cutting 
down old trees in some cases. The few trees now 
left are jealously guarded by their wealthy owners and 
offshoots can not be had at any price. 

The date is soft, dark in color, and somewhat 
similar to Deglet Nur in flavor; many Americans as 

*This is an old story in Arab communities. AI Bakri says that 
in the Ziban almost a thousand years ago "Ubayd Allah the Fatimide 
decreed and reserved for his own use all the harvest of Liari dates 
and ordered the local officials to forbid the sale of this variety and 
send all that were grown to him." Another MS. calls the variety 
Kabari; the writer says it was white and smooth, but I can not 
identify it with any variety grown there now. Al Bakri, Descr. of 
No. Africa, 1068 A. D. Tr. by de Slane. Paris, 1869. P. 126. 
Kearney says the rarity of the variety Selatny (Sultani?) in Tunisia 
is accounted for in the same way as that of Manakhir. 



DATE VARIETIES 269 

well as Arabs consider it superior. It has the ad- 
vantage of being larger, and possibly of keeping 
better; the flesh remains soft and firm, the skin dry 
and clean. It has a considerable amount of fibre 
in the seed cavity, however, particularly if it be picked 
before it is fully ripe. American experience has 
shown this characteristic to be most fully developed 
while the palms are still young; those in California 
produced inferior fruit during their first few years, 
but have been improving each year. The date in 
Arizona seems to be of second quality. 

The fruit is late, ripening toward the first of 
November. The yield is small during the first few 
years, but when adult the palm is said to bear as 
much as 220 pounds, single clusters sometimes being 
heavier than a strong man can carry. 

The palm is formidable in appearance, leaves 
being long, broad, and rather stiff and heavy, crowded 
with very numerous long leaflets, and their stalks 
armed throughout with long, stout spines. Fruit 
clusters are short and dense, their stalks bright 
yellow, rather short, stout and only moderately 
curved, so that the dates do not hang down below 
the leaves as with Deglet Nur and many other va- 
rieties, but are almost hidden by the foliage. It 
proved sensitive to frost last winter. 

Fruit from two to two and one-third inches long, 
about one-half as wide, oblong, broad and rounded at 
both ends, dull orange yellow before maturity, 
brownish maroon when ripe, with a purplish bloom. 
Flesh one-fourth inch thick, the white, fibrous lining 
to the seed cavity well developed . Seed one inch long, 
two-fifths to one-half as wide, russet to chestnut 
colored, its surface uniformly roughened with small 



£70 DATE GROWING 

pits and fine wrinkles, ventral channel frequently 
closed, germ pore usually distinct, always above 
middle of seed; seed broad at both ends. Flesh soft 
and sirupy at moment of ripening. Flavor delicate. 
(Kearney) . 

Maridheh, The Invalid, an ordinary soft date 
from the Ziban of Algeria, said to resemble Kasbeh. 
It is described as light reddish brown in color, broad in 
proportion to its length, palatable, keeping well, 
and ripening in mid-season. The yield is always 
good and sometimes very large. Not commercially 
important; has not yet fruited in the United States. 

Masarraf, The Marketable, (?) a dry date from 
the Ziban of Algeria, wliich has never been common, 
but boasts of great antiquity and has been esteemed 
by every generation. It is described as long and 
slender, light brown in color, flesh firm but not hard. 
If picked at the proper stage and packed closely it 
remains a soft date. Yield fairly heavy; season 
rather late. Occasionally sold in Algiers, where it 
brings a good price. If allowed to hang on the palm 
until thoroughly dry it becomes very dark in color. 
Palms of the varieties Masarraf and Ghars are con- 
sidered the two best for making laqml, on account of 
the large amount of sap they yield; it is, therefore, 
probable that this variety is a vigorous grower. It 
has not yet fruited in the United States. 

Mashi Degia, Mishi, Mecha Degla, The 
Purgative Seedling, a small and common Algerian 
dry date which is often confused with Makantishi. 
This tall palm bears a heavy crop about November 1. 



DATE VARIETIES 271 

The date is a little less than medium size, light bay 
or ochraceous in color, the flesh thin, dry and usually 
hard, with traces of astringency. Not desirable 
for planting in the United States. 

Mirhage, see Amir Hajj. 

Muznaj, Meznag, vulgarly Bznag, The Thirst 
Producer, one of the earliest of Oman dates, and 
common. It is usually eaten only when fresh, or 
rutab. The yield is said to be very heavy, a palm 
often carrying twenty-five clusters. Fruit is long 
and slender. With native methods the dates do not 
keep well-^but then, they rarely have a chance. 
The variety has not yet fruited in the United States. 
A letter from Consul Homer Brett in Masqat states 
that the first dates this year arrived on the market 
there May 20, and that they were of this variety, 
grown in an oasis which derives its water supply 
from a spring whose temperature is 105° F. 

Naghal, Nagal, The Bastard, one of the most 
popular Oman dates, because it is the earliest to 
ripen, with the exception of Muznaj. June 1 may be 
taken as the date for its arrival at marketable con- 
dition, in an ordinary year. The date is of medium 
size or a little larger, long and slender, light brown in 
color; little eaten except in its fresh and soft condition, 
but can also be cured and keeps well. The yield of a 
palm of this variety is said to be heavy. Has not 
yet had an opportunity to show what it can do in 
the United States, but when the offshoots now here 
come into bearing they are likely to prove of great 
interest. 



272 DATEGROWING 

Najl al Pasha, Nazi, Nagl el Basha, Child of the 
Pasha, a rare but highly esteemed Egyptian variety 
which has produced notably good fruit in Arizona. 
It is a large and long soft date, excellent when fresh, 
(in which condition it is yellow and pulpy), but equally 
good when cured. It is then dark brown, the flesh 
full of syrup but firm enough to be handled easily 
and ship well. Some tasters have thought they 
could distinguish a slight vanUla flavor in it. The 
variety, which is similar in many characteristics to 
Birket al Hajji, can be recommended for planting 
in the United States. It matures in October in 
Arizona, but should be considerably earlier in a more 
favored location. According to some writers the 
name is properly Naql al Pasha, The Pasha's Dessert. 

Nakhleh Zianeh, The Beautiful Palm, often 
called by ungrammatical natives Degla Zayyin, 
The Excellent Seedling; and in some districts Laun 
al Kasbeh, which suggests that it is a Kasbeh seedling 
in origin. A common and popular soft date of the 
ZIban in Algeria, found more rarely over a much 
larger area. Noted particularly for its heavy yield, 
which sometimes reaches 660 pounds, according to 
native estimates. The date is described as of medium 
size, dark golden browoi in color, flesh flrm but tender, 
and of excellent flavor. When placed on the market 
it brings as good a price as any variety except Deglet 
Niir. Probably rather late in maturing; the specimens 
in the United States have not yet reached a bearing 
age. 

Nakhlet al Pasha, The Pasha's Palm, an Egyptian 
soft date growing at the Mecca Experiment Station in 



DATE VARIETIES 273 

California. The small, dark brown dates ripen in 
late September, and are of excellent flavor but do 
not keep well. The yield is heavy. It is doubtful 
whether this palm is correctly labeled. 

Qintar, colloquially Al Guntar, The Hundred- 
weight, probably referring to its yield. One of the 
attractive Persian Gulf varieties recently introduced 
to the United States. A small date, but highly 
prized by the Busreh Arabs. It is so full of syrup 
that it has to be brought from the palm in a basm, 
but if cured properly this drains away, leaving a 
date of delicious caramel consistency, quite similar 
to Khalaseh in flavor. The palm begins bearing at 
the age of seven or eight years in Busreh; its fruits 
mature late in September or early in October, and will 
keep for seven or eight months. The variety is 
rare. 

In form the fruit is broadly oblong to oval, widest 
at or near center, narrowing slightly toward the 
rounded or slightly flattened base and the rounded 
apex. Size medium small, length one and one- 
eighth to one and three-eighths inch, breadth at 
widest point five-eighths to seven-eighths inch. 
Surface slightly rough, translucent reddish brown to 
purplish maroon in color, overspread with a thick 
bluish bloom. Skin rather thick but not tough, 
coarsely wrinkled and adhering to the flesh closely. 
Flesh very firm and of caramel consistency, one- 
fourth inch in thickness, translucent, deep reddish 
amber colored; the fibrous lining of seed cavity almost 
wanting. Seed oblong-obovate, blunt at base and 
sharply pointed at apex, three-fourths inch long, 
five-sixteenths inch wide, smooth, fawn-colored. 



274 DAT E GROWING 

ventral channel almost closed, j?erin pore nearer apex 
than base. Flavor excej)tionally rich and pleasant. 

Qurn al Ghazal, Qern el R'azal, Guern el Rhezal, 
The Gazelle's Horn, a name descriptive of the pe- 
culiar api)earancc of this long, slender and curved 
date from Algeria and Tunisia. It is found in very 
limited numbers in all the oases, and is said to be one 
of the principal varieties at Gabes, Tunisia, and on 
the island of Jerba.* The palm, which is tall and 
slentler, bears heavily ; the date is described as reddish 
brown in color, with thin flesh which is firm, or even 
dry, but not hard or brittle. It ripens in October. 

Qushf Batash, The Sweetmeat (Pers.), one of the 
earliest dates of Oman, ripening in June, sometimes 
even in the first half of May, according to Arabs — 
but it should be remembered that an Arab's idea of 
ripeness is not that of an American, and that for an 

*The island of Jerba, on the coast of Tunisia, is thought by 
many to have been the one described by Homer as the residence of 
the Lotus Eaters. In that case the fruit which so attracted them 
may have been dates, and not the worthless jujube {Zizyphus lotus) 
which the old botanists identified as the object of the description 
in the Odyssey. 

jThis word is used in Oman as Degal is in other regions, or as 
Khalt is used in Tunisia, to designate a date of adventitious origin, 
ordinarily a seedling; and often, but by no means always, it indicates 
a date of inferior quality, just as the two other words do. Qush 
Baliish would, thcrofore, be called Degla Batdsh in Algeria or at 
Baghddd, and Khalt Batdsh in Tunisia. For strict accuracy, it 
should be translilcrated Qushsh or Qashsh. The etymology is dis- 
puted; many authorities relate it to Kushsh, a word which designates 
the pollen of the male palm; others see in it a Persian root. In 
general the classical lexicographers define it in the same way that 
they do the word Degal. The word Khalt is, I beHeve, not used 
classically in the sense which it carries in Tunisia: it means "of 
mixed blood; of uncertain origin." It does not, as has been said, 
mean a dry date, any more than Degal means a soft date, as has 
sometimes been supposed by date students. 



DATE VARIETIES 276 

Arab a date is ripe enough to eat when it is still so 
hard and astringent that live stock would hardly 
touch it in the United States. The variety is rare, 
but much in demand because of its earliness and its 
heavy yield. It is rarely cured because there is such 
a demand for fresh dates at the beginning of the 
season that they are never given a chance to hang 
on the tree after they are edible. The fruit is de- 
scribed as slender, very dark brown or black in color. 
Has not yet fruited in the United States. 

Qush Farfara, name of an oasis (the word is 
perhaj)s formed to imitate the murmur or bubbling 
of running water), sometimes called the Farfara 
Fardh; a soft date of Oman, almost identical with the 
genuine Fardh of commerce, but growing in a different 
region and ripening a month earlier; the quality is 
also considered slightly inferior. In actual practice 
the two dates are indiscriminately mixed together for 
export. A common variety, but not a very heavy 
bearer. Arabs say it keeps better than the ordinary 
Fardh, showing no deterioration for at least three 
years after it is picked. 

Its remarkable keeping qualities are illustrated 
by the experience of a sharp dealer at Masqat, who 
for several years, when the Mecca pilgrimage fell in 
summer, sent these dates to Mecca and palmed them 
off on the pilgrims as fresh dates of that year's crop; 
they were so well preserved that the deception was 
easy, although the dates when sold were at least ten 
months old. They were put on the market earlier 
than the Mecca dates could ripen, and the sj)eculator 
secured a fancy price for them. The game was 
finally exposed when one shipment was found riddled 



276 D A T E G R O W I N G 

by worms; as these are never found in dates until 
they have been stored for some months, the pilgrims 
promptly decided that the dates which they had 
been buying were by no means fresh from the tree, 
as represented, and they drove the shrewd Omani 
out of business. 

The Farfara Fardh was introduced to the United 
States only in the present year. 

Qush Hasas, The Indigestible (lit., rumblings of 
the belly), a small, yellow, dry date of Oman, much 
esteemed by the Arabs in spite of its name. Has not 
yet fruited in the United States. A fairly common 
variety which bears well; rarely eaten fresh, as 
it is inferior in that stage. Ripens in September, 
concurrently with Khanayzi and Khalaseh, 

Qush Shahm, Sheham, The Pulpy (the word 
originally means fat meat, but is also regularly used 
for the flesh of a fruit). An early soft date from 
Oman, brought to the United States only this year. 
It is of medium size, long in proportion to its breadth, 
yellow when fresh but later turns dark brown. The 
yield is fairly heavy; it ripens in June, when it is 
particularly valued as rutab; but it also cures and 
keeps well. It is highly esteemed by the Arabs. 

Qush Zabad, The Butter Date, a small variety 
from Oman, and one of the best soft dates of that 
region. Ripens in mid-September and is said to bear 
very heavily. Good when fresh, but usually cured, 
when it keeps easily for a year. The variety is 
fairly common in its home; has not yet fruited in 
America. 



DATE VARIETIES 277 

The date is one and seven-sixteenths inch 
long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, broadest near 
base and tapering very slightly to blunt apex. Color 
reddish brown. Skin tender and color of cafe au lait 
when it blisters. Has a tendency to stickiness, but 
this can probably be obviated by proper handling, as 
the flesh has an excellent caramel consistency, and 
is one-quarter inch tliick. Seed small, three-quarters 
inch long, one-quarter inch wide, tight in cavity; 
some fibre, but soft and not noticeable in eating. 
Flavor mild. 

Rashidi, see Samani. 

Rhars, see Ghars. 

Rishti, Arishti, Arechti, Archeti, The Feathery. 
With the definite article in Arabic it is Al Rishti, 
pronounced Ar Rishti, whence the incorrect spelling 
which has become current. A large and attractive 
date from Algeria and Tunisia, noted for its heavy 
yield. Soft but firm, admirable for keeping and 
shipping; eaten at all stages. It is the favorite date 
of Algerian Jews. Some natives consider it best 
just before it is fully soft, others declare it not worth 
eating until it has been stored for four to six months. 
It ripens rather late, about the middle of October, 
and frequently bears from 200 to 250 pounds of fruit. 
It has given good results in the United States, but 
its offshoots have proved delicate and difficult to 
root. 

The palm has a stout trunk but particularly 
graceful foliage, as its name indicates. The leaves are 
green, soft, and drooping, leaflets long, narrow, and 



278 DATEGROWING 

rather sparse, spines few, slender and weak. Stalks 
and branches of the fruit-clusters are pale orange. 

Fruit two inches long, one and one-third inch 
wide, broadest near center or slightly above, tapering 
gently to rounded or bluntly pointed apex and flat 
or depressed base. When fresh it is light bay or 
hazel brown, which changes to dark chestnut as the 
date cures; and the thin and tender skin at the same 
time rises in loose, indiscriminate folds and blisters 
of a cinnamon color. Flesh three-sixteenths inch 
thick, firm but tender. Seed one and one-fourth 
inch long, one-fourth inch wide, brownish terra 
cotta color with some gray near base, rounded or 
broadly pointed at each end, germ pore slightly 
nearer apex than base, ventral channel deep but 
nearly or quite closed, surface of seed irregularly 
roughened. Flavor pronounced but agreeable, nutty, 
not cloying. 

Ruhm al Ghazal, a variety brought from the 
oasis of Siwah (Jupiter Ammon of the ancients) 
on the frontier between Egypt and Cyrenaica, which 
has produced very good fruit in California. It may 
be the same as Ghazali of the same oasis, which is 
said to be "not very productive, though its dates 
are marvelous in flavor, appearance, and power 
to keep long." A variety of the same name grows 
in the delta of Egypt, but its identity and relationships 
have not been worked out. Dates from Siwah, 
recently sent to the United States under the name 
of Gorm Gazaly, may be the same thing. 

*S. P. I. Inventory, Dept. of Agric, No. 32896. The name is 
there translated Antelope's Abode; it is more likely Jaram al Ghazal, 
The Gazelle's Dry Date, or Qarm al Ghazal, the Gazelle's Food. 



DATE VARIETIES 279 

S'aldi, a date grown in Kharjeh, Siwah and 
other western oases, and averred by its friends to 
have the finest flavor of any date of Egypt. It 
is probably of Nile origin, however, S'aid being the 
time-honored native name for Upper Egypt. Ripens 
in September. It is the chief variety in the oasis of 
Kharjeh, whence it is exported in considerable 
quantities. I believe that only seedlings are to be 
found in the United States at present, but it is a 
promising variety for such locations as Coachella 
Valley. 

Samiani, said to be named after a village, one 
of the best Egyptian dates, but ripens rather late. 
Chiefly grown on the coast near Rosetta, in a sandy 
soil, and without inundation or surface irrigation; 
exported in fancy packages at remunerative prices. 
The fruit is described as thick, almost ovoid, tapering 
at apex; amber yellow in color, spotted or smeared 
with red. Seed small. Flesh thick but slightly 
coriaceous. Has not yet fruited in the United 
States. The variety is sometimes called Rashidi. 

Sarna, Sarni, perhaps originally S4rma, The 
Unirrigated (lit., a desert without water); a popular 
dry date of Oman. In Samail I was told that it 
ripened late in August and was not eaten rutab; in 
Masqat it was declared to ripen in June and to be 
eaten principally fresh. Possibly two varieties are 
united under one name; in each case the color was 
described as yellow. The date is said to be round 
in shape; the yield average. Offshoots introduced 
to California have not yet had time to bear fruit. 



280 DATEGROWING 

Sayir, Sayer, The Fibrous (?), one of the most 
widely grown dates in Mesopotamia, although of 
inferior quality. It is also called Usta'amran, and 
by that name is usually known at Baghdad; some 
experts profess to see a slight difference between the 
two, but their efforts are hardly successful. At 
Muhammarah this name is usually corrupted to 
Sa'amran; Sta'amran and Sambran are other vulgar 
pronunciations sometimes heard. The date is ex- 
ported to America to a limited extent, and plays an 
important part in native trade in the Persian Gulf; 
it is the principal date gi-own on the Euphrates and 
the middle Tigris. It bears heavily, (shortly before 
the first of October at Busreh),and will keep for a 
year or more. Said to do best in a sandy soil. 

Form broadly oblong to oblong-elliptical, widest 
at center or slightly nearer apical end, whence it 
narrows almost imperceptibly toward the flattened 
base and broadly pointed apex. Size medium to 
medium large, length one and one-fourth to one and 
five-eighths inch, width three-fourths to seven- 
eighths inch; surface almost smooth, translucent, 
glossy dark orange brown in color, bloom almost 
unnoticeable. Skin rather thick and tough, smooth 
except for occasional wrinkles or longitudinal folds 
in which it separates from the flesh, which is rather 
soft, syrupy, one-fourth to three-eighths inch in 
thickness, deep amber colored, with considerable 
tender fibre around seed; the latter broadly oblong, 
rounded to blunt at both ends, three-quarters inch 
long, five-sixteenths broad, fairly smooth, grayish 
brown in color, ventral channel nearly closed, germ 
pore nearer base than apex. Flavor very sweet, not 
cloying, but not rich or distinctive in any way. The 









:3^1 




DATE VARIETIES 281 

dark color of this date is its principal drawback. It 
has done well in America. 

Sba el Aroosa. See Asabi al Arus. 

Shukkar, Sugar, a fairly common date around 
Baghdad, and much esteemed, selling in the market 
for a higher price than Khustawi. In general, it is 
only eaten fresh, although when packed in skins or 
boxes it keeps well. This date is brown in color, 
rather long but not otherwise large. It ripens in 
midseason and bears well. 

Siwi, an Egyptian variety new to California. 
Said to be perfumed, very sweet and of good quality. 

Sukkari, Sugary, probably would get more 
votes than any other if the Arabs of the Baghdad 
region were asked to name the best soft date. Sultan 
'Abdul Hamid, in fact, used to have a shipment of 
dates of this variety sent to him at Constantinople 
every year. At Baghdad the palm is rare; it is 
reputed to be more common at Baqubah and Mandali, 
but never appears on the market. Most of the dates 
are eaten fresh, but they also pack well. The palm 
is vigorous and hardy, but a shy bearer, ripening its 
dates from the middle of August to the first of 
September. If cured properly they have a perfect 
caramel consistency. 

The date is oblong-ovate to elliptical in form, 
widest at or near center; thence narrowing slightly 
toward the flattened base and the broadly pointed 
apex. Size medium large, length one and three- 
eighths to one and five-eighths inch, breadth three- 



282 DATEGROWING 

fourths inch. Surface somewhat rough, translucent 
orange brown to light brown in color, overlaid with 
a thick, blue-gray bloom. Skin thin and tender, 
deeply wrinkled in all directions but adhering to the 
flesh closely. Flesh soft and very delicate in texture, 
three-eighths inch thick, clear, translucent, golden 
brown in color, with no fibre around seed. Seed 
oblong-elliptical, almost blunt at base and broadly 
pointed at apex, three-fourths inch long, five-sixteenths 
inch broad, smooth, russet, the ventral channel open. 
Flavor mild and delicate, agreeably rich but not cloying. 

Sultani, The Sultan's Date, a name widely 
applied in Egypt and possibly covering more than one 
variety. The best known is a dry date grown in 
sandy soil in many of the western oases (as far west 
as Siwah) and also in Nubia. Ripens in September. 
It is said that this date used to be exported to Con- 
stantinople, where it was eaten by the Sultan, hence 
its name; this is probably a fable. The variety is 
short in proportion to its breadth; red at apex and 
lighter colored at base; flesh thin, dry and rather 
brittle; seed large. Said to be aromatic. 

Said to be also called Kilma, in Nubia. 
Delchevalerie mentions a variety of the same name 
in Lower Egypt (province of Sharqia), which he 
describes as orange yellow, when fresh, (in which 
condition it is generally eaten), chestnut when cured ; 
large and perfumed. He says it is also called Safar 
al Dunya, Voyage in the World — possibly because 
it was an object of export. It may be the Nubian 
date, changed by climate. 

The variety has not yet fruited in the United 
States. 



DATE VARIETIES 28.3 

Sultani, The Sultan's Date, a variety scarce at 
Baghdad but thought well of, ripening about the 
middle of August. It is a soft date, long and large, 
brown in color; usually consumed fresh, because 
of its earUness, but packs well. Has not yet borne 
fruit in the United States. 

Sukkar Nabat, Refined Sugar, a small, yellow 
dry date of Baghdad, very rare but highly esteemed, 
the Arabs comparing its taste to that of candied 
honey. The flesh is granular, but particularly 
melting for a dry date. 

Sukkuti, see Ibrahimi. 

Tabirzal, originally Tabirzad (Pers.), "Sugar 
Candy," a name appropriate to its peculiar but 
delicious flavor of burned sugar. It is alwaj's accented 
on the middle syllable. Unquestionably one of the 
best varieties at Baghdad, but not common, and 
rarely seen in the bazar. The palm has the peculiarity 
of ripening its fruits very slowly ; they are ripe enough 
to eat in September, but not fully ripe until well on 
to the first of November. It is also the only Baghdad 
variety, say Arabs, the trunk of which ever branches. 
The yield is moderate. 

Form broadly oblong-obovate, widest below 
center, whence it narrows slightly to the flattened 
base and abruptly to the broadly pointed apex. 
Size medium, length one and one-eighth to one and 
one-half inch, breadth seven-eighths to one and 
one-eighth inch. Surface undulating, translucent 
deep orange brown in color, overspread with a bluish 
gray bloom. Skin thin and rather tender, coarsely 



284 DATEGROWING 

wrinkled and folded, and often separating from the 
flesh, which is soft and tender, one-quarter inch 
thick, translucent orange brown in color; fibrous 
lining of seed cavity almost wanting. Seed broadly 
oblong, rounded at both ends, five-eighths to three- 
quarters inch long, five-sixteenths inch broad, smooth, 
light grayish brown in color, ventral channel narrow. 
Flavor distinctive, mild and pleasant, sweet but not 
cloying. 

Tadala, Tedalla, a large soft date from the 
Mzab oases of Algeria, where natives state that it 
sometimes reaches a length of three inches. In 
California and Arizona it attains a length of two 
and one-fourth inches. In color it is a dull amber, 
and its appearance is pleasing; the flesh is fairly 
firm but the skin excessively tender, so that even 
with the greatest care it can hardly be prevented 
from breaking when the fruit is taken from the palm. 
The season is early October, and the date is of the 
rutab class, that is, its fruit is good only when fresh. 
After being picked, it soon dries and shrivels, losing 
all flavor; it cannot, therefore, be considered a good 
commercial date, and should not be planted except 
in limited quantity for home use. 

The palm is vigorous and is considered a heavy 
bearer; its leaves droop in a way which allows it to be 
distinguished among others without great difiiculty. 
Considerable confusion exists among the palms of 
this name in the United States; three of the four 
palms at Mecca, California, appear to be seedlings, 
while at Tempe, Arizona, one of the palms listed as 
Timjuhart is evidently Tadala. The variety is not 
desirable in Arizona, any more than in California, 



DATE VARIETIES 285 

although it has distinguished itself at Tempe by the 
way in which it brings its fruit to maturity regularly, 
despite the most unfavorable climatic conditions. 

Tazizaut, Tazizaoot, a soft date from the Mzab 
of Algeria, apparently found to a limited extent over 
a much larger region in North Africa, although its 
nomenclature is confused. It is said to be common, 
and therefore offers great possibilities to the 
commercial growers of the United States, as it is 
entirely successful here and can probably be obtained 
in sufficient quantity to make its culture worth while. 
The fruit is large and firm, and keeps well, showing 
little deterioration either in color or flavor after 
the lapse of a year. It ripens early in September, 
but may be left on the palm for a month more without 
deterioration. In very heavy soils, such as those of 
the Salt River Valley of Arizona, it is later in maturing. 
It resists dampness and moisture very well. The 
yield is large, as many as seventeen fruit clusters 
having been produced in the fifth year and twenty- 
two in the eighth year on a palm in Coachella Valley. 
The variety not only matures but ripens perfectly on 
the tree. 

The palm is strong and stout, seems equally well 
suited by light or heavy soil, and is decidedly hardy 
in winter. Its foliage is notably soft, the dry, hard 
point found at the leaf apex of most varieties being 
absent. The leaves are noticeably recurving. Off- 
shoots are rather difficult to handle, however, on 
account of their loose structure and the low situation 
of the terminal bud; Drummond suggests that they 
be propagated in a very light soil or even in pure 
sand. 



286 DATEGROWING 

Bint Qabaleh, Bent Keballa; perhaps the proper 
spelling is Bint Qibleh, Daughter of the South, or 
Bint Qabbaleh, the Kissable Maiden; one traveler 
calls it Bint Khabala, which would mean The 
Shriveled. A rare variety from the Mzab of Algeria, 
somewhat similar to Yatimeh or Al Qutar (q. v.); 
of medium size, inclined to be sticky, but of attractive 
appearance on account of its clear, light, amber color. 
It is considered by the Mzabites one of their best 
varieties, but although it has done well in the United 
States it will never be very desirable on account of 
its softness — the pulp becomes mushy if the air is 
humid at the time of its ripening. If carefully 
packed, however, it keeps w^ell. Ripens soon after 
the first of October. Offshoots are difficult to handle, 
by reason of their loose make-up and the low position 
of the terminal bud. 

Tafazwin, Tafazween. Sometimes the feminine 
form, Tafazwint, is seen. French writers call it 
Tafazaouine. A large, attractive and valuable date 
from Algeria and Tunisia, which has given excellent 
results in California. It can be used either as a 
soft or dry date, according to the stage at which it is 
picked from the palm, and the care taken in handling 
it. To make a soft date it should be picked when it 
begins to show translucent spots, and ripened indoors. 
If left on the palm it will become dry, but never 
hard. The fruit ripens early in October, the yield 
being fairly heavy; and because of its attractive 
appearance, excellent quality, and keeping and 
shipping properties, it is certain to be valuable. 

The fruit is two inches long, or a little more, and 
seven-eighths inch wide. Bright bay color when 



DATE VARIETIES 287 

fresh, it changes to an attractive golden brown when 
it cures, and the blisters of the skin take a tan or 
hazel color. The date is thickest just below the 
base, tapering slightly to the bluntly pointed apex. 
The base is flattened. Skin thin and tender, adhering 
closely to flesh but indiscriminately wrinkled; some- 
times raised in long folds and blisters. Flesh three- 
sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick, firm and trans- 
lucent. Seed one and one-fourth inch long, five- 
sixteenths inch wide, slender, tight in cavity, golden 
brown in color, almost uniform in width throughout 
its length, rounded to broadly pointed at each end; 
ventral channel broadly open, germ pore close to 
base. Flavor particularly sweet, delicate and agree- 
able but not cloying. 

Much interest has been created in Coachella 
Valley by a palm belonging to Fred N. Johnson of 
Indio, which was imported as an offshoot from Tunis 
by the Department of Agriculture, but given to Mr. 
Johnson without a label. My friend and colleague 
Henry Simon, of Arabia, California, who spent the 
winter of 1912-1913 in Algeria and Tunisia, and gave 
particular attention to the identification of this 
palm by comparing its fruit with those of the Sahara 
and getting the opinions of Arab growers, came to 
the conclusion that it was Tafazwin, but with some 
slight differences which indicated that the California 
palm might have been the offshoot of a particularly 
fine seedling Tafazwin. I concur with Mr. Simon 
in this opinion, but in order that the reader may form 
his own judgment, I give a description of Mr. Johnson's 
date: 

Fruit two inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, 
usually tapering slightly from base to apex but 



288 DATEGROWING 

sometimes the reverse. Bright bay color, verging 
on cinnamon at the base and chestnut at the apex. 
Skin thin and tender, sometimes raised from flesh 
in straw-colored blisters. Often marked with 
numerous short, transverse scars (a feature that 
often, but not always, characterizes the Saharan 
Tafazwin). Flesh five-sixteenths inch thick, trans- 
lucent; chestnut colored near surface verging to 
straw inside. Some fibre. Seed one inch long, three- 
sixteenths wide, cinnamon to hazel in color, ventral 
channel open, deep; germ pore slightly nearer base 
than apex. Flavor sweet but not heavy; good. 

The giant cells of this date are nearly spherical, 
while Kearney describes those of his Tunisian speci- 
mens as angular and two or three times as long as 
broad. This is not a positive point of evidence, 
however, for the giant cells of Tafazwins which I 
brought from Algeria are nearly the shape of those 
of the Indio palm — round or even pear shaped, 
although prevailingly angular. 

With this evidence, certainly no one can say 
with confidence that the Indio palm is not Tafazwin. 
Either it or the imported palms of that name are well 
worth growing. Dates of this variety which I have 
kept loose for two years are still soft and in almost 
as good condition as when they were picked. 

Tanasin, Tenaseen, Tanessin, Tenacine, 
Temacin, probably named after an oasis in the 
Sahara, a black date of medium size which has 
proved successful in the United States, particularly 
in Arizona. The palm is distinguished by its 
horizontal or umbrella-like crown of foliage. 




BIRKET AL HAJJI PALM FROM EGYPT 
Considered the best variety for Arizona. Lost many leaves by frost in 
January, 1913, but its crop was uninjured. 



DATE VARIETIES 289 

Fruit one and one-half inch long, about one- 
half as wide, broadest near middle, and rounded at 
both ends. Color very dark brown or black. Skin 
thick but tender, adhering closely to very dark brown 
or almost black flesh one-fourth inch thick, soft and 
melting unless the fruit has been thoroughly cured, 
when it becomes firm but usually slightly sticky. 
Seed seven-eighths inch long, one-fourth wide, slender 
and of almost uniform width; hazel in color with 
areas of chestnut. Ventral channel open and deep, 
germ pore nearer apex than base. Flavor agreeably 
sweet and slightly nutty, mild and not cloying. 

The date of this name described by Kearney in 
Tunisia seems slightlj^ different. The Tanasin palm 
at Tempe, Arizona, is from the Oued Righ of Algeria, 
where I also obtained my specimens. It matures in 
midseason and is particularly prized because of the 
evenness with which all berries on the cluster ripen at 
one time. In native commerce it is usually sold 
pressed into skins, and a mixture of Tanasin, 
Tantabusht, and Deglet Nur, jammed together in 
this manner, is said to be the nomad's idea of the 
extreme of high living. 

Tantabusht, Tantaboucht, Tantaboosht, an 
Algerian and Tunisian variety of remarkable appear- 
ance — nearly round, and almost black in color. It is 
soft, and does not keep its shape well unless thoroughly 
cured. It is highly prized by the natives, who say 
that before it is fully ripe it has the flavor of a good 
baked potato. It plays an important part in the 
caravan trade of the Sahara, where it is cheap. 

Fruit nearly spherical, one to one and one-half 
inch in greatest diameter, base flattened or slightly 



290 D A T E G R O W I N G 

depressed. Color very dark brown or purple, almost 
black. Skin thin and tender, adhering closely to 
flesh but wrinkled indiscriminately; when long dried 
the fruit often shows light-colored scars, short and 
usually longitudinal, but sometimes making almost a 
net work over limited areas of the surface. Flesh one- 
fourth inch thick, golden brown in color with a lighter 
layer toward center; soft and syrupy, becoming 
granular after the lapse of a year. Seed five-eighths 
inch long, three-eighths wide, loose in cavity, mummy 
brown to russet in color, usually smooth but some- 
times quite rough, ventral channel closed except for 
a noticeable opening near apex, germ pore nearer 
base than apex. Flavor remarkably sweet, like 
molasses in a w^ell-cured fruit; sometimes a slight 
astringent taste. Ripens midseason but irregularly 
on bunch, if left on palm. Arabs usually pick an 
entire cluster when the dates begin to soften, and hang 
it indoors; they state that in a week or ten days the 
fruits will all ripen together. 

Thuri, Thoory, Tsuri, The Bull's Date, an 
Algerian dry date which has proved one of the most 
satisfactory in California. It is large, not hard, and 
of excellent flavor; the palm bears heavily and the 
clusters are of exceptional size. For this reason 
Arabs usually remove three-fifths of all the spathes 
after pollination. Rather late in ripening (about 
November 1). Hangs on the clusters well, so is 
often sold in that condition. The date is classed by 
Arabs as "hot," and not suitable for a prolonged and 
exclusive diet. 

The fruit is one and three-quarters inch long, 
three-quarters inch wide, broadest in middle or 



DATE VARIETIES 291 

slightly nearer base, thence tapering slowly to rounded 
or bluntly pointed apex and flattened or depressed 
base. Color when fully dried is Indian chestnut 
red overspread by a thick bluish bloom, but skin is 
much raised in big folds and blisters which give a 
prevailingly hazel color to the date. Flesh three- 
sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick, deep golden 
brown, firm and nearly dry but not hard or brittle; 
white with some soft fibre toward center. Seed 
one inch long, three-eighths inch wide, stout, rounded 
at base, bluntly pointed at apex, cinnamon to ashy 
gray in color, ventral channel deep and partly closed, 
germ pore noticeably nearer base than apex; loose 
in cavity. Flavor sweet, nutty and delicate, no 
astringency; does not deteriorate even if kept for a 
year or more. 

Timjuhart, Tinjuhart, Timdjouert, a common 
variety in the Mzab of Algeria,* which has done 
well in the United States. It is a soft date of average 
size and good flavor, which packs and keeps partic- 
ularly well. When fresh it is bright red and so full of 
syrup that it drips. The cured date may be de- 
scribed as follows: 

One and three-fourths inch long, three-fourths 
inch broad, widest at middle or slightly nearer base, 
thence tapering slightly to bluntly pointed apex and 
flattened base. Dark chestnut to purpHsh maroon 
in color. Skin thin and tender, adhering closely 
to flesh, sometimes profusely marked with short, 

*The Mzab or Oued Mzab is a long string of oases, running 
north and south, in the Sahara of Algeria; it contains little more than 
200,000 palms, but has an unusually large proportion of good varieties. 
Its inhabitants, the Mzabites, are not of Arab stock or language, 
but are a Berber or proto-semitic race, akin to the ancient Egyptians. 



292 DATEGROWING 

transverse scars. Flesh three-sixteenths inch thick, 
dark golden brown in color, firm but tender, some- 
times granular. Seed hazel in color, one inch long, 
five-sixteenths inch wide, ventral channel shallow, 
sometimes broadly open and at other times partly 
closed, germ pore in center. Flavor very sweet 
but not cloying. Season from September 15 to 
October 1. 

Turunja, Tronja, Troundja, The Citron {Citrus 
medico), a name probably suggested by its shape. 
A large, nearly spherical, soft date of Tunisia which 
has produced excellent fruits in California. It 
ripens in October. If allowed to remain on the palm 
it becomes practically a dry date. The variety is 
not common in its native home, but is highly esteemed 
by the natives; Europeans usually find it too sweet 
for a continued diet. 

Kearney describes the fruit as perfectly round 
or nearly so, one and one-half to two inches in greatest 
diameter, maroon to prune purple when ripe, dull 
orange brown before maturity. Skin, where loose, 
tawny. Flesh three-eighths inch thick, firm or 
even tough, sugary. Seed very thick, six-tenths to 
seven-tenths as long as the fruit, three-fifths as long 
as wide, much furrowed, ventral channel closed, germ 
pore not distinguishable. Flavor rich, extremely 
sweet, cloying. 

Usta'amran. See Sayir. 

Wahi, The Oasis Date, a variety grown in 
several of the western oases of Egypt and also in the 
province of Gizeh. OfPshoots imported into the 




FIFTY POUND BUNCH OF DEGLET NURS 
From imported offshoot planted May 4, 1905, by Fred N. Johnson of 
Indio, California. In 1910 it bore thirty pounds, in 1911 one hundreil pounds, 
in 1912 one hundred and forty pounds, 1913 over two hundred pounds, and has 
during that time yielded eight offshoots. 



DATE VARIETIES 293 

United States have not yet fruited; seedling palms 
in Arizona have proved coarse and late, but this 
should not condemn the variety, which is highly 
esteemed in Egypt. This date, which ripens in 
August, is soft but keeps well, is longer and considerably 
broader than Deglet Niir, slightly translucent; 
flesh yellowish, granular midway between skin and 
seed. Seed blunt, irregular in outline. Flavor pro- 
nounced, delicious. 

Yatimeh, Iteema, Itima, Ytima, The Orphan, 
one of the most popular North African varieties, 
considered by many native connoisseurs the equal 
of Deglet Nur; and one which has given particularly 
good results in California. It ripens toward the end 
of September, and is a great favorite with the Arabs 
when fresh, but also keeps well. The dates hang 
persistently to the clusters, and are usually sold 
in the market in this condition, but the x\rab gourmand 
considers that they become insipid by so much 
exposure to the air, and for his own use packs each 
cluster in a box, surrounded with dry dates; they will 
remain in perfect condition for six months or a year. 

Offshoots are considered rather delicate. The 
palm demands plenty of water and fertilizer in 
order to produce the best results. The yield is 
heavy. 

Fruit two inches long, one-half as wide; widest 
at or near middle, rounded or flattened at base, 
broadly pointed at apex. Chestnut brown in color, 
with slight purplish bloom, the thick but tender and 
shiny skin raised all over the fruit, when it is cured, 
in tawny olive or ochraceous blisters. Flesh one- 
fourth inch thick, soft and syrupy when fresh, after- 



294 DATEGROWING 

ward becoming firm but tender and melting. Seed 
one inch long, three-sixteenths wide, rounded at base 
and apex, cinnamon or hazel in color, ventral channel 
nearly closed, germ pore in center. Flavor sweet, 
pronounced. 

In some districts of Algeria this date is called 
Al Qutar, The Dripper, because syrup sometimes 
drips from it on the tree; the name might be freely 
translated "Honey Drips." In other districts Al 
Qutar seems to have been established as almost a 
distinct variety, distinguished by a little larger size 
and superior quality. It is almost a monopoly of the 
shaykhs and kaids, who preserve it in jars to offer 
to guests as a particular delicacy. 

Zaglul, a large, soft, Egyptian date which has 
given good results in the United States, and is par- 
ticularly valuable because of its early maturity. In 
Egypt it is much grown on sandy soil near Rosetta, 
where it receives no surface irrigation, and this 
probably accounts for its reputation as a shy bearer. 
Its seed is conspicuously small. 

Eisen says : "This variety is considered in 
Cairo as the best date that comes to that market, 
and it accordingly brings the highest price. It is 
sold in retail at eight piasters per oke (one oke is 
two and three-fourths pounds) or about fifteen cents 
a pound. It is from two to three inches long, of 
brown or reddish brown color, very highly flavored 
and sufficiently sweet but not exceedingly so. It is 
very meaty and is always eaten fresh. There are 
not over four bunches to the tree and the crop is never 

*Eisen, Dr. Gustav. Fruits in Egypt. California Cultivator, 
vol. XL, No. 4, p. 100. Los Angeles, Jan. 23, 1913. 



DATE VARIETIES 295 

sufficiently extensive to allow any of it to be dried. 
There are several kinds of Zaglul, slightly differing in 
size and quality. The very best kind does not last 
more than a month or even less than a month." 

Zahidi, Zehedi, Zadie, originally Azadi (Pers.),* 
Nobility, a remarkable dry date which is the principal 
commercial variety of Baghdad. To the planter it 
is valuable for its vigor, hardiness, resistance 
to drought and great prolificness — a yield of 250 
pounds being common — while it is also one of the 
earliest to mature. To the dealer and shipper it 
commends itself because it can be sold in three 
forms, soft, dry, or half way between, and keeps 
well in any form. It is the principal food of most of 
the nomads around Baghdad, and is shipped to most 
of the ports of the Mediterranean; it will usually be 
found on sale in Marseille at a good price. It is much 
used in the manufacture of arrak, a distilled liquor 
whose production is an important industry at Baghdad; 
the date qualifies for this purpose because of its large 
sugar content. The flavor of Zahidi is not equal to 
that of Asharasi, but it is superior to most North 
African dry dates, containing very little tannin. 

The palm is characterized by a thick, stout 
trunk, swelling at the base, and leaves rather erect, 
not recurving like most varieties. Their color is a 
healthy glaucous green; the spines are very large and 
stiff. 

In its soft stage this date is picked about the 
middle of August and packed in boxes or more fre- 
quently in skins. In this condition it keeps for 

*For the peculiar history of the names Zahidi and Khustawi, 
see Pere Anastase-Marie, Loghat el Arab No. 10, p. 397. Baghdad. 
April, 1912. 



296 DATEGROWING 

months and is called Zahidi Kursi, the latter word 
being Sukkari ("sugary") with the letters transposed. 
In this state it may be described as follows: Form 
oblong-obovate, broadest point about two-thirds 
distant from base to apex, after which it narrows 
slightly to the rounded apex and to the rather broad, 
flattened base; size medium, length one and one- 
quarter inch, breadth seven-eighths inch. Surface 
smooth, glossy, a beautiful, translucent, golden yellow 
in color, sometimes light golden brown; bloom 
unnoticeable. Skin rather thick and not easily 
broken, rarely wrinkled, and adhering closely to the 
flesh, which is translucent golden yellow near skin, 
becoming whitish toward seed; soft, meaty and full 
of syrup; one-quarter inch thick. Seed oblong, 
smooth, rounded at base, slightly tapering at apex, 
three-quarters to seven-eighths inch long, five- 
sixteenths inch W'ide, smooth, russet in color, ventral 
channel open. Flavor sweet, extremely sugary but 
not at all cloying, and possessing a remarkably 
fresh or rutab taste. 

If the dates are allowed to remain on the palm 
a week or two longer, the whole cluster can be cut 
and hung up in a shop, the dates showing no tendency 
to become detached, even after four or five months. 
In this stage, w4iich the Baghdadis call Zahidi Qass, 
(cut), the fruit is still soft and tender, but not sticky. 
The flavor is perhaps a trifle less rich than when the 
fruit is packed in skins, but it still has a unique 
freshness, so that one could eat such dates in February 
or March and almost persuade himself that they are 
fresh from the tree. I believe this date offers great 
commercial possibilities to California growers, since 
entire bunches could be furnished to grocers, who 




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DATE VARIETIES 297 

would hang them up in the window just as they do 
a bunch of bananas. 

The principal export of the date from Baghdad, 
however, is in its third or dry state ("Zahidi Yabis")» 
when it may be described as follows: Form same as 
given above; size a trifle smaller. Surface hard and 
dry, slightly rough, deep straw color with sometimes 
a translucent, dark amber portion near apex. Skin 
hard and dry, tough and not easily broken; smooth 
near base and usually somewhat wrinkled and folded, 
and separating from flesh toward apex. Flesh dry 
but not mealy, three-sixteenths inch thick, dull white 
in color with frequently an amber portion near tip. 
Seed as described above. Flavor very sugary. 

The variety has not yet fruited in California, 
but should be very successful. In the unfavorable 
climatic conditions of Tempe the only drawback to 
it has been a tendency, shown by most dates there, 
to ripen unevenly. 

Zumreh Mimun, The Offshoot of Mimun (a 

personal name ), a very rare variety of the Ziban 

in Algeria, probably a derivative of Deglet Nur, as it 

is said that an outsider can hardly distinguish the two 

varieties of dates, even if he sees them side by side. 

The date is described as of the same size and color as 

Deglet Nur, equally translucent, ripening in October, 

keeping well. The palm yields heavily only if it is 

given very good care. This variety has not yet 

fruited in the United States. 

*It is the name, in Arabic orthography, of the famous Jewish 
scientist of the twelfth century A. D., Maimonides. To name a 
choice variety of date after him is certainly heaping coals of fire, 
for he denounced dates as injurious, and advised that they should be 
eaten rarely and then only before meals. Abu Amran Mouchi b. 
Mimoun, The Principles of Physical and Moral Health, tr. by M. 
Carcousse, Alger, 1887, p. 23. 



APPENDIX 




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I 

QUARANTINE REGULATIONS 

Anyone wishing to import date palm offshoots 
from a foreign country must obtain a permit from 
the Secretary of Agriculture, and must mark each box, 
case, or package with the name and address of importer 
and exporter, general nature and quantity of contents, 
district or locality and country where grown, and 
number of permit. Each package must either be 
accompanied by a certificate of inspection from the 
foreign country, stating that the plants are free from 
disease or pests, or the importer must file a bond with 
the collector of customs, to the amount of double the 
invoice value of the property, to insure that he will 
properly treat it to free it from scale and other pests, 
within forty days of arrival, under instructions from 
the quarantine officers; and the plants must not be 
removed from the port of entry until written notice 
is given by the agent of the Department of Agriculture 
to the collector of customs that the stock has been 
properly treated. 

The only places into which palms can be shipped 
by an importer are : 

In California, Riverside County, east of the San 
Bernardino meridian; Imperial County. 

In Arizona, Yuma County, Maricopa County, 
Pinal County. 

In Texas, Webb County. 

After being properly treated in a cresol dip for two 
periods of fifteen minutes, separated by twenty-four 



302 APPENDIX 

hours, offshoots may be moved to any point within 
the region above mentioned, but must be rooted in 
nursery form, and so kept for a year, when they will 
again be inspected, and if found free from scale they 
may be shipped to any point in the United States, if 
accompanied by a certificate of inspection from a 
duly authorized agent of the Department of Agriculture, 
showing that they are not infested. They can not be 
shipped outside the quarantine area unless free from 
scale; but inside the quarantine area they may be 
shipped to any point. In California, however, they 
must not be planted within 500 feet of seedling palms. 

In regard to offshoots of local origin, either from 
imported palms or from seedlings, they may be 
shipped anywhere at any time if accompanied by 
the proper certificate showing that they are not 
infested. If they are infested, they can only be 
shipped within the quarantine area, or from one 
quarantined region to another. 

The oflBcers in charge of inspection on behalf of 
the Department of Agriculture will furnish all infor- 
mation desired. No fee is charged for inspection. 
The oflBcers are: 

In California: Bruce Drummond, Indio. 

In Arizona: A. W. Morrill, Phoenix. 

In Texas: J. D. Mitchell, Victoria. 

Plant quarantine regulations are based partly 
on the Plant Quarantine Act passed by Congress last 
year and approved August 20, 1912, and partly on 
state regulations. The above synopsis represents 
the essential features of the act and regulations at 
the date of writing, September 1, 1913. 



II 

TO GROW BANANAS FROM DATE SEEDS 

During the dark ages it was a widespread Arab 
superstition that bananas could, under certain 
circumstances, be grown from date seeds. The slight 
similarity in general appearance between the two 
plants was elevated to a real relationship, particularly 
by the Baghdad physician 'Abdu-1 Latif (twelfth 
century), in his Description of Egypt (pub. at Paris 
by Imperial Press, 1810, with tr. by S. de Sacy). The 
writer declares that to make the relationship evident 
all you need to do is to place a date seed in a fruit of 
the colocasia and bury it; the result will be a banana 
plant. 

The plant which the Arabs designate as colocasia 
(Arab., from Pers., qulqas) is doubtless not Colocasia 
antiquorum, but the sacred water lily of the Egyptians, 
Nymphea lotus {Castalia mysiica). The way in which 
the writers speak of it shows, however, that they had 
only a hazy idea in mind, and probably did not 
really know what plant they were referring to. 

Ibn Awam, the Spanish Moor who wrote his 
treatise on agriculture in the twelfth century, gives 
more detailed directions for performing the operation, 
in his chapter entitled "To Make a Date Seed Grow 
in a Colocasia Root, to Obtain a Banana by the 
Permission of God." He says: 

"The manner of operating is to plant a colocasia 
root in a place constantly exposed to the sun, where 
one can water it abundantly and continuously and 



304 APPENDIX 

protect it from wind. Water it carefully until the 
root sprouts; then dig away the earth, split the root 
with a gold-bladed knife, and in that cleft introduce 
the date seed. The operation must be concealed in 
such a manner that the colocasia root can not see w^hat 
is being done, otherwise the operation will not suc- 
ceed. The seed used should be from a date of the 
variety Kasbeh or any other delicate variety. Bind 
up the cut with reed leaves or woolen thread and 
plaster the whole thing over with mud mixed with 
fine hairs, then cover it four fingers deep w4th humus. 
Water it with sweet water daily or every other day 
until the germination is apparent, then you will see 
the banana appear. If planted in January or February 
you will get fruit at the end of summer; this fact is 
very extraordinary. Some think the seed should be 
broken before it is put in the cleft; I have tried it 
without success. 

"A witness worthy of faith tells me he has seen 
the operation performed in the orient in this manner: 
Take a seed in its fruit, using pains to get a female 
seed — it is that which is short and not pointed at the 
end. Introduce the seed in a colocasia root, which 
resembles a turnip or artichoke root; cover it with a 
little humus, w^ater it continuously, and abundantly, 
and there will appear a banana, which is a kind of 
colocasia, but rare in Spain, if indeed it is known at 
all." 

Another MS. version, more probably correct, 
makes Ibn Awam say that he has never been able to 
try the operation, because he could not secure any 
colocasias. 




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"THE SWEAT" TALISMAN 

The following talisman was in high repute among 
Arab date growers of the dark ages : Ibn Awam quotes 
the formula from the Book of Nabathean Agriculture: 

"A man takes a sheet of copper weighing 70 to 
140 mithqals (i^67 to 534 gr.). He goes to the middle 
of the field where he wishes to plant his date seeds; 
there he digs a hole to the depth of seven Nabathean 
feet (2.53 m.); then he takes a clay jar, very deep and 
rendered very hard by the action of a violent fire; 
he puts the copper tablet in it, after having rubbed it 
with olive oil. Plant the vase in the hole, and the 
seeds will give palms of excellent varieties, very sweet 
and handsome. This shall be done when the horoscope 
is in the two houses of Jupiter. If it is in Jupiter 
itself, that is excellent. The moon ought to be 
apparent and in conjunction with the sun, or else with 
Jupiter. If the moon is in one of the houses of this 
planet and the horoscope is there, it is very good. 
Distrust The Tail and Mars, for if one of them or 
both are in the horoscope, or if they occupy the middle 
of the sky, the palms produced by the seeds will be 
shy bearers. Kimama says: 'Draw with an iron 
style on this sheet of copper the figure of a man with 
one hand above the other. Rub honey on the figure 
and olive oil on the rest of the plate; shake powdered 
sugar on the honey. Put the sheet in the jar and 
cover it with a layer of clay, then bury it among the 
roots of a palm which lets its fruit drop before they 
are ripe: it will retain them and its product will be 
as beautiful as possible'." 



INDEX 



A jweh 24 

Alkali, effect on palms 34, 35, 156 

Amari 211 

Amekentichi 264 

Amhat 211 

Amir Hajj 212 

Amiri 214 

Ammaree 211 

Ammary 211 

Amri 214 

Anjdsi 214 

Ants attacking palm 156 

Aooshet 216 

Archeti 277 

Arechti 277 

Arishti 214 

Arizona, adaptability to dates 28, 54 

Arrak 197 

Asab'i al Arfis 214 

Ascherasi 215 

Asharasi 81, 120, 164, 215 

Ashar Fahal 121 

'Ausheh 216 

'Awaydi 67, 216 

Azmashf 217 

Badinjdni 218 

Badrahi 219 

Badraihi 219 

Badrashin 127, 220 

Badm-ahi 219 

Baghdad, bearing at 175 

climate of 32 

irrigation at 37, 9 1 

males at ISM) 

season at 127, 163 

Bajl4ni 220 



308 INDEX 

Bananas from dates, to grow SOS 

BdrbAn 121, 221 

Barhl 221 

Bartamoda 222 

Bearing of palm intermittently 94 

Bearing of palm, quantity 174 

Bedraihe 219 

Beetle in dates 157 

Bent Keballa 286 

Berban 221 

Berhi 221 

Berni 226 

Bertamoda 222 

Beverages from dates 195 

Bint 'Aisheh 223 

Bint Qabdleh 286 

Birket al Hadji 223 

Birket al Haggi 223 

Birket al Hajji 68, 128, 223 

Bourlos 226 

Breeding dates from seed 47, 50, 56 

Brem 224 

Brim 224 

Bu Narinja • 225 

Blirllis 226 

Burni 226 

Burshi 227 

Busreh, cultivation at 92 

irrigation at 36 

season at 127, 163 

soil of 33, 167 

Carbon dioxid in ripening dates 138, 139, 208 

Carpophyllus dimidiatus 167 

Casa Grande Valley adapted to dates 28 

Chamerops humilis 108 

Chemical constituents of dates 204 

Climate suited to dates 27, 30, 32 

Coachella Valley adapted to dates 27 

Colorado River Valley as date country 27 

Consumption of dates in United States 179 

Cooking methods 179 



INDEX 309 

Crop, enemies of 128 

handling of 130 

picking of 129 

Cultivation of ground 39, 90 

Dakar Majahel 121 

Dates " hot " and " cold " 167 

Deboeni 231 

Deboweni 231 

Degal 55 

Deglet Ntir . .27, 51, 80, 84, 91, 141, 161, 164, 165, 168, 174, 179, 228 

Dietetic value of date 203 

Digestibility of date 205 

Drainage of soil 34 

Dry-farming of dates 37 

Dubaini 231 

Egj'pt, bearing in 174 

irrigation in 36, 37 

large offshoots in 59 

pollination in 102 

season in 127 

El Kseba 232 

Emkentishi 264 

Ephestia cautella 156 

Expense of cultivation 178, 183 

Fahal Aksba 121 

Falling of fruit 96 

Fard 232 

Fardh 81, 232 

Farisi 235 

Fertilizers 33, 83, 92 

Fig moth in dates 156 

Flowering, time of 108, 1 13 

Flowers, appearance of in two sexes 110 

as food 193 

hermaphrodite 113 

Food value of dates 203 

Frost resistance of palms 31 

Frost resistance, effect of irrigation on 90 

Fumigation of packing-house 157 

Fursi 235 

Ghanami 120 



310 INDEX 

Ghars 129, 167, 169, 235 

Ghazi 237 

Gila River Valley adapted to dates 28 

Gondela 238 

Gondila 238 

Gophers attacking palms : 155 

Grafting palms 123 

Graphiola phoenicis 153 

Grasshoppers attacking palms 155 

Guern el Rhezal 274 

Gundila 238 

Halawi 238 

Halawi Makkawi 239 

Halwa 241 

Hamraia 243 

Hamraya 243 

Harra 246 

Hasa, dates of 97, 162 

Hasan Ef endi 244 

Hasawi 245 

Hayaru 245 

Hellali 245 

Heloua 241 

Herra 246 

Hilali : 245 

Horra 246 

Hourra 246 

Hukri 120 

Hurra 246 

Huwayzi 246 

Hwezi 246 

Ibrahimi 247 

Ibrahimi 247 

Identification, means of 170 

Imperial Valley adapted to dates 27 

India, dates in 30, 45, 53, 55, 175 

Indian meal moth in dates 156 

Irrigation 36, 37, 89 

Iteema 298 

Itima 248 

Kanta 248 

Kasbeh 249 



INDEX 311 

Kenta 248 

Kenteeshy 264 

Kentichi 264 

Kesba 249 

Kessebi 249 

Khadhraw^ 67, 121, 252 

Khadrawi 252 

Khalas 253 

Khalasa 253 

Khaldseh 39, 162, 253 

Khalasi 253 

Khanayzf 258 

Khanezi 258 

Khastawi 258 

Khudrawee 252 

KhusUwi 258 

Kustawi 258 

Lagoo 259 

Lagou 259 

Laqmi, palm wine 196, 198 

Laqu 259 

Madina, Arab center of date culture 23, 37, 102, 127, 164 

Majhul 81, 84, 260 

Makantishi 264 

Maktoom 265 

Maktum 265 

Maktum Ahmar 268 

Males, identification of 122 

influence on seed 108 

nomenclature of 124 

number necessary 108 

percentage of in seed 84 

selection of 119 

shoot, characteristics of 123 

transformed to females 123 

value of seedling 119, 121 

varieties of 120 

Manakhir 85, 169, 268 

Manure, use of 92 

Maridheh 270 

Marketing dates 43 



312 INDEX 

Marketing dates in bunches 132 

Marlatt scale 151 

Masarraf 270 

Mashi Degla 270 

Masqat, dates at 39 

Maturation of date 142 

Mecha Degla 270 

Medicinal uses of date 193 

Medjeheul 260 

Medjool 260 

Menakher 268 

Mexico, dates in 29, 44, 136 

Meznag 271 

Mirhage 271 

Mishi 270 

M'Kentichi 264 

Monakhir 268 

Moths in dates 156 

Muhammad, connection with dates 

21, 22, 23, 102, 170, 188, 189, 195 

Muznaj 271 

Nagal 271 

Naghal 271 

Nagl el Basha 272 

Najl al Pasha 272 

Nakhleh Zianeh 272 

Nakhlet al Pasha 272 

Nazi 272 

Oman, climate of 30 

cultivation in 64, 92 

u-rigation in 36, 39 

season in 127, 162 

OflFshoots, best size of 59 

detaching 61 

difference of season in 122 

growth of 67 

identification of 71 

packing and shipping 63 

planting 64 

production of 68 

production of dates from 46 



I x\ D E X SIS 

Offshoots, profit from 177 

rooting with bottom heat 69 

shape of 59 

time to cut 60 

watering 66 

Packing dates 130 

Pahn, in antiquity 22 

monoecious 113 

traditions concerning 21, 22, 23 

Palm wine 196 

Parlatoria scale 149 

Pasteurization 130, 157 

Phoenicococcus scale 151 

Phoenix canariensis 107 

Phoenix sylvestris 53 

Plodia interpunctella 156 

Pollen, handlmg of 107 

preservation of 107 

Pollination, antiquity of 101 

failures in 110 

in nature 104, 105 

in America 106, 1 14 

native method of 105 

Preserving dates 191 

Qern el R'azal 274 

Qintar 273 

Quarantine 158, 301 

Qurn al Ghazal 274 

Qush Bat4sh 274 

Qush Bu Narinja 225 

Qush Farfara 275 

Qush Hasds 276 

Qush Shahm 276 

Qush Sheham 276 

Qush Zabad 276 

Rain, effect of on dates 96 

Rakab 163 

R'ars 235 

Rashidi 277 

Rats attacking dates 155 

R'azi 237 



314 INDEX 

Rhars 277 

Rhazi 237 

Rhyncophorus borers 154 

Ripening, artificial, in Orient 135 

artificial, in United States 137 

chemical process 206 

natural and artificial 206 

time of, in Orient 127 

time of, in United States 127 

Rishti 277 

Ruhm al Ghazal 278 

" Rutab " dates 166 

S'aidi 279 

Sacramento Valley, dates in 28 

Salt, use of on palm 94 

Salton Basin, dates in 32, 54 

Salt River Valley for dates 28 

Samiani 279 

San Joaquin Valley, dates in 28 

Sarna 279 

Sarni 279 

Sayer 280 

Sayir 127, 280 

Sba el Aroosa '. 281 

Scale insects on palms 149 

Scale insects, treatment of 150, 152 

Seedling dates 44, 46 

Arab theories on 77 

cultivation of 83 

freedom from scale 158 

in United States 47 

transplanting 83 

variability of 48, 85 

Seed, Arab uses of 192 

planting 82 

selection of 80 

sex of 84 

Serving dates, ways of 188 et seq. 

Sex, evidence of in offshoots 122 

Shitwi 127 

Shukkar 281 



INDEX 315 

Siwi 281 

Soil adapted to dates 27, 33 

Spain, dates in 45, 136 

Sukkari 281 

Sukkar Nabat 283 

Sukkuti 283 

Sultanf 282 

SuMni 283 

Siunaysmi 120 

"Sweat" Talisman, The 305 

Tabirzal 283 

Tadala 284 

Tafazween 286 

Tafazwin 165, 286 

Tafilalet dates 31, 45 

Talismans and charms 94, 96, 97, 305 

Tanasin 288 

Tanessin 288 

Tantaboosht 289 

Tantaboucht 289 

Tantabiisht 289 

Tazizaoot 285 

Tazizaut 285 

Tedalla 284 

Temacin 288 

Tempe, climate at 139 

harvest at 129 

irrigation at 37 

Tenacine 288 

Tenaseen 288 

Texas, dates in 29 

Thoory 290 

Thiiri 290 

Timdjouert 291 

Timj<ihart 291 

Tinjuhart 291 

Trachycarpus excelsus 108 

Transliteration of Arab names xv 

Trimming of palms 97 

Tronja 292 

Troundja 292 



DEC 9 1913 



S16 INDEX 

Tsuri 290 

Turunja 292 

Usta'amran 292 

Varieties 211 et seq. 

Wahi 292 

Wardi 120 

Washingtonia filifera 108 

Water for irrigation, amount needed 38 

Water for irrigation, temperature of 39 

West Indies, dates in 31 

Windbreaks in date plantations 48, 84, 97 

Wind, effect of on palms 97 

Wolfskin date 54 

Wormy dates 158 

Yatimeh 293 

Ytima 293 

Zadie 295 

Zaglul 294 

Zahidi 165, 197, 295 

Zanzibar, dates in 31 

Zehedi 295 

Zumreh Mimun 297 



.:;j 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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